Software Engineer (For independent contractors)

Role Overview

A Software Engineer II owns the execution of technical elements in the Booking.com tech stack, products, and processes. They are responsible for implementing technical solutions based on business requirements, estimating effort and impact, and demonstrating a high quality of craft in their deliveries. A Software Engineer II understands that the quality of test automation is as important as production code and invests time in refactoring both to ensure ease of change, enabling a sustainable pace of development.

Software Engineers II work collaboratively with colleagues in other roles to design, prioritize, and implement technical tasks. This role would be in CS AI Automation track, successful candidates will work and collaborate with CS software engineers to deliver AI features that support both customers and CS agents.

Responsibilities

Building Software Applications

• Build applications using relevant languages, systems, and tools.

• Write readable, reusable code using standard patterns and libraries.

• Refactor and simplify code by introducing design patterns.

• Ensure application quality through standard testing techniques.

• Maintain data security, integrity, and quality by following company standards.

End-to-End System Ownership

• Own services end-to-end by monitoring health, performance, and metrics.

• Reduce business continuity risks by applying best practices and documenting via runbooks/OpDocs.

• Minimize risk and gather feedback using continuous delivery and experimentation frameworks.

• Independently manage application deployment and production operations.

Technical Incident Management

• Resolve live production issues while mitigating customer impact within SLA.

• Improve system reliability through root cause analysis.

• Track incidents by contributing to postmortems and logging issues.

Architectural Guidance

• Advise teams on solutions meeting requirements by challenging designs and providing architectural context.

• Set direction for technical capabilities by evaluating architecture and aligning with stakeholders.

Software Systems Design

• Evaluate architecture solutions considering cost, business needs, and emerging technologies.

• Understand infrastructure implications when changing or adding systems.

• Accelerate development using engineering techniques like prototyping and vendor evaluation.

• Design solutions that meet current needs and adapt for future enhancements.

Critical Thinking

• Systematically identify and resolve underlying issues in complex situations.

• Evaluate ideas and solutions objectively, seeking SMART improvements and articulating rationale.

Continuous Quality and Process Improvement

• Identify opportunities for process and performance improvements.

• Design and implement process flows and standards that enhance business performance.

• Maintain data security and quality, mentoring junior team members.

Effective Communication

• Deliver clear, structured information tailored to the audience.

• Achieve agreeable solutions through adaptability, active listening, and clear communication.

• Engage stakeholders by asking relevant questions and applying listening techniques.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Experience with Microservices Architecture: Proven experience designing, building, and maintaining scalable microservices.

• Proficiency in Java: Strong knowledge of Java programming and hands-on experience with frameworks such as Spring and Hibernate.

• AWS Cloud Experience: Solid understanding and practical experience with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for deploying and managing cloud-based applications.

• Database Experience: Hands-on experience working with relational databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL) and non-relational databases (e.g., DynamoDB, Cassandra).

• Container Orchestration with Kubernetes: Experience managing and orchestrating containers using Kubernetes.

• Excellent Problem-Solving Skills: Strong ability to identify and resolve complex technical issues with attention to detail.

• Strong Communication and Collaboration Skills: Ability to effectively convey ideas and work collaboratively across teams and stakeholders.

• Teamwork and Independence: Capability to work both independently and as part of a team.

• Preferred (Plus) Skills:

  • Experience with orchestration, process automation, Agentic workflows and building GenAI based tools is a big plus

  • GraphQL: Experience designing and implementing APIs using GraphQL is a plus.

Additional Information

• This role may require participation in an on-call rotation.

• This is a hybrid role, with 40% monthly office attendance required.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field or equivalent work experience.