{"id":85927,"url":"https://alion.io/job/kayak-senior-java-software-engineer-2","title":"Principal Software Architect","company":{"id":3573,"name":"KAYAK","domain":"kayak.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/kayak","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"C","score":69,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0.25,"stale_share":0.5,"repost_share":0.25,"time_to_fill_p50_days":38,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Kaunas, Lithuania","Vilnius, Lithuania"],"countries":["LT"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":7000,"max":10000,"currency":"EUR","period":"month","gross":true,"usd_annual":134136},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-01-12T15:01:49Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-13","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T02:19:54Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":278,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":277},"description":"KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is a leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We’re also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business.\nAs an employee of KAYAK, you will be part of a travel company that operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands including momondo, Cheapflights and HotelsCombined, among others. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is in our DNA and every employee has an opportunity to make their mark. Our focus is on building the best travel search engine to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.\nKAYAK for Business is a corporate travel management platform that helps companies book, manage, and service business travel at scale - from search and policy enforcement through to booking, servicing, AI-powered automation, and enterprise integrations. We are looking for a Principal Software Architect to help define the long-term technical vision and architecture strategy for the entire KAYAK for Business engineering organisation. This is a senior individual contributor role with broad influence across multiple engineering teams, working at the intersection of distributed systems, external integrations, and AI-driven product experiences.\nThis role is required to work from our Kaunas or Vilnius office at least 3 days per week.\nIn this role, you will:\nDefine and own the long-term technical vision and architecture strategy for KAYAK for Business, spanning search, booking, servicing, AI, identity, and enterprise integrations.\n\nOversee the design of reliable, scalable, secure, extensible, and maintainable systems across the K4B platform.\n\nLead major technical initiatives that span multiple engineering teams, building alignment through clear communication and connecting technical priorities to business goals.\n\nLead architectural discovery for new projects: evaluate technical options, define system boundaries and integration points, run proofs of concept where needed, and produce clear design documents (RFCs, ADRs) for review.\n\nPresent architecture proposals to engineering leadership and cross-functional teams, facilitating collaborative decision-making on high-impact technical changes.\n\nIdentify and address architectural risks, technical debt, performance issues, and operational gaps across the K4B platform; propose and drive improvements that increase system stability and developer productivity.\n\nEstablish engineering standards for reliability, observability, recoverability, security, and maintainability across K4B engineering.\n\nMentor senior engineers and technical leaders across the business unit, sharing knowledge through design discussions, documentation, code review, and pairing.\n\nContribute to cross-team architectural alignment, working with other engineering teams to agree on shared patterns, contracts, and infrastructure.\n\nPlease apply if you have:\nProven experience designing scalable architectures for e-commerce systems.\n\nStrong proficiency in Java or another JVM-based language, with a solid understanding of how to build reliable, observable, and maintainable services.\n\nA track record of leading architectural design work across multiple teams: producing design documents, facilitating technical reviews, and guiding teams through complex implementation decisions.\n\nProven ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams through communication, collaboration, and sound decision-making - without relying on direct authority.\n\nExperience with observability and production operations - you understand how to instrument systems, interpret logs and metrics, and respond to production incidents.\n\nStrong written and verbal communication skills in English; you can explain complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.\n\nA collaborative approach to technical leadership - you influence through clarity, shared understanding, and sound reasoning.\n\nIt would be an advantage if you also have:\nExperience in the travel technology domain, including familiarity with booking flows, order management, or integrations with travel distribution systems.\n\nExperience with B2B integration and identity standards, including service-to-service authentication and enterprise identity platforms.\n\nExperience integrating AI or machine learning capabilities into production backend systems.\n\nFamiliarity with event-driven architectures, message queues, or asynchronous processing patterns.\n\nExperience working in a service-oriented monorepo environment.\n\nCompensation:\nsalary consists of three elements:\nBase pay: from 7000 EUR up to 10000 EUR gross monthly. \nIn addition:\nSignificant yearly bonuses, approx 10 percent of annual salary.\n\nBooking Holdings RSU (Restricted Stock Units) package, worth 40000 USD gross, with possibility to receive yearly refreshes.\n\nBenefits and Perks:\nWork from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year\n\nFunds for your career growth\n\nAccess to thousands of on-demand e-learnings\n\nGenerous additional Health Insurance\n\nFlexible sick time off\n\nAdditional financial support for your sick leave\n\nAdditional day off on your birthday\n\nCompany-wide vacation week once a year (winter holidays)\n\nAdditional financial support during parental leave\n\nFree lunch twice a week and daily snacks at the office\n\nFree yoga twice a week\n\nPaid volunteering time\n\nNo meeting Fridays\n\nOffice and team events such as summer camp, KAYAK birthday, winter party and more!\n\nCompany-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth\n\nCompany-paid subscription to HeadSpace\n\nInternal Communities\n\nInclusion\nAt KAYAK, we want everyone to have the space to grow, share ideas and do great work. That’s why we’re focused on hiring the best talent from all walks of life and experiences, supporting them well and making sure no one feels like they have to fit a mold to belong here.\nNeed any adjustments for the interview, application or on the job? No problem - just give us a heads-up. We’ve got you.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6089,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"Advanced (C1)","optional":false}]},"benefits":["Health insurance","Parental leave","Restricted stock units"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Lithuania","iso":"LT","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Price Comparison","Travel Technology"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-01-12T15:01:49Z"},{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-25T15:36:00Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":6,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.229,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":277,"expected_fill_days":38,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":134136,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/kayak-senior-java-software-engineer-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/kayak-senior-java-software-engineer-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T04:22:13Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":6524,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3573},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3573"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fkayak-senior-java-software-engineer-2"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fkayak-senior-java-software-engineer-2"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fkayak-senior-java-software-engineer-2"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/kayak-senior-java-software-engineer-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fkayak-senior-java-software-engineer-2"}]}