Senior Software Engineer
Job description
About the role
Tripadvisor is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join their growing team in Oxford, United Kingdom. The role involves designing and building software that powers one of the world's largest travel platforms, serving millions of users worldwide. You will work closely with other engineers and product teams to deliver features that help travelers plan, research, and book their trips with confidence. This is a full-time position based in the Oxford office, offering the chance to shape the future of online travel.
Key facts
What you'll do
Design and implement scalable backend services that support Tripadvisor's travel review and booking features across multiple markets.
Collaborate with frontend developers to build responsive user interfaces for the Tripadvisor website and native mobile applications.
Write clean, well-documented code and participate in thorough code reviews to ensure high software quality standards across the team.
Contribute to architectural decisions and technical design documents for new features and ongoing platform improvements and migrations.
Work with data engineering teams to integrate travel recommendations, personalized content, and ranking algorithms into the core platform.
Troubleshoot and resolve production issues, monitoring system performance metrics and optimizing application response times for better user experience.
Mentor junior and mid-level engineers through pair programming sessions and provide guidance on coding standards and best practices.
Participate in agile ceremonies including sprint planning, daily standups, backlog refinement, and retrospective meetings with the broader engineering team.
Develop and maintain automated testing frameworks including unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to ensure reliable and consistent software deployments.
Research new technologies and evaluate their potential to improve the Tripadvisor travel platform, presenting findings to the engineering organization.
Partner with product managers and designers to understand user needs and translate requirements into technical specifications and implementation plans.
Optimize existing systems for performance, reliability, and scalability as the user base continues to grow across global markets.
Requirements
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field from an accredited university or institution.
Five or more years of professional software development experience building web applications and distributed services in a production environment.
Strong proficiency in a modern programming language such as Java, Python, Scala, or C++ with demonstrated real-world application.
Experience working with RESTful APIs and designing scalable microservices architectures for large-scale, high-traffic systems serving millions of users.
Familiarity with relational databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL including query optimization, indexing strategies, and schema design best practices.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment, communicating technical concepts clearly to both engineers and stakeholders.
Solid understanding of software design principles including object-oriented design, SOLID principles, and test-driven development methodologies and workflows.
Experience with version control systems such as Git and continuous integration delivery pipelines in a fast-paced development setting.
Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to analyze complex technical challenges and propose effective, practical solutions independently.
Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to prioritize tasks effectively when working on multiple workstreams simultaneously across teams.
Nice to have
Experience with cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure for deploying and managing production applications at scale.
Knowledge of containerization technologies like Docker and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes for managing distributed application infrastructure.
Background in machine learning or natural language processing applied to travel recommendations, search relevance, and personalized content delivery systems.
Familiarity with agile development methodologies and experience working in a fast-paced, iterative environment with frequent releases and deployments.
Prior experience working at a consumer-facing technology company with a strong focus on user experience and product quality metrics.
Skills & tools
Programming languages including Java, Python, Scala, or similar object-oriented and functional languages commonly used in backend development.
Web frameworks and libraries for building modern, responsive user-facing applications and reliable backend services for the travel domain.
Database systems ranging from relational databases like PostgreSQL to NoSQL stores such as MongoDB, Cassandra, or Redis for varied data needs.
Message queuing and event streaming systems such as Apache Kafka or RabbitMQ for building reliable distributed application communication patterns.
Development tooling including integrated development environments, static analysis linters, and debugging utilities for efficient and productive coding workflows.
Linux-based operating systems and command-line environments for server-side development, deployment, and ongoing system administration and maintenance tasks.
Container and orchestration platforms including Docker and Kubernetes for packaging, deploying, and managing applications in cloud environments.
Monitoring and observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, or Datadog for tracking application health and diagnosing production issues quickly.
Practical notes
The position is based in the Oxford, United Kingdom office with a hybrid work arrangement available for eligible team members.
Candidates must be eligible to work in the United Kingdom without requiring visa sponsorship at this time for this role.
The interview process includes a technical coding assessment, a system design discussion, and multiple rounds of team-based interviews with engineering leads.
Tripadvisor offers competitive benefits including comprehensive health insurance, retirement contribution plans, and generous paid time off for all full-time employees.
The Oxford engineering team is part of a larger global organization, providing opportunities for cross-regional collaboration and professional growth over time.