Senior Backend Engineer

About Wego:

We’re on a mission to help people discover the real value of travel — to inspire, to give more reasons, to make it easy — for you to travel. Our company was founded back in 2005, and since then, we’ve imagined and created some of the most well-loved products for travelers all around the world.

Today, Wego is the number 1 travel metasearch engine in the Middle East. There are millions of users on Wego every month — people who travel for adventure, for work, for family and for many other reasons. That’s why we work tirelessly to make your experience of planning & booking flights, hotels and trips as seamless as possible

Summary

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Software Engineer - Backend to join our team within the Flights OTA (Online Travel Agency) domain. Our team is dedicated to building robust, scalable, and reliable backend systems that enhance the end-to-end travel booking experience. This includes a wide range of areas, from search and booking to post-booking functionalities such as itinerary modifications, cancellations, notifications, and customer support tools.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will play a vital role in designing and implementing backend services, ensuring system reliability and performance, and contributing to the team’s technical growth. You’ll collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver innovative and impactful features while continuously improving our engineering practices.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services and APIs.
• Participate in system architecture discussions to design efficient, maintainable, and future-proof services.
• Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code while adhering to industry best practices and internal standards.
• Collaborate with Product, UX, and Data teams to understand requirements and deliver effective technical solutions across the entire customer journey.
• Improve code quality by implementing unit tests, automation, and conducting thorough code reviews.
• Optimize backend systems for performance, scalability, and reliability to handle the demands of a global customer base.
• Debug and resolve production issues quickly to minimize the impact on users and ensure high availability.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and propose innovative solutions to enhance systems and processes.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in backend software engineering, including hands-on coding and system design.
• Proficiency in Java or a similar backend programming language (experience with Go is a plus).
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) and container technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Strong knowledge of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and database optimization techniques.
• Familiarity with caching technologies (e.g., Redis, Memcached) to optimize system performance.
• Strong understanding of system architecture, scalability, and reliability best practices.
• Experience with CI/CD practices and automated pipelines.
• Solid troubleshooting and debugging skills for production systems.
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana).

Our Ideal Candidate Will:

• Be proactive in solving problems and collaborating with team members.
• Care about the “Why” behind features and team workflows, demonstrating a product-minded approach to engineering.
• Be passionate about clean, maintainable code with an eye for simplicity and pragmatism.
• Value frequent, high-quality releases and short feedback loops to improve customer satisfaction.
• Be eager to learn and adopt new technologies and best practices.
• Demonstrate excellent communication skills, including active listening, facilitation, and giving constructive feedback.

What You’ll Do:

In the First Month, You’ll:

• Get up to speed on our initiatives and systems, diving deep into both technical and operational aspects.
• Actively engage with the team across development phases—grooming, planning, coding, code reviews, and releases.
• Build relationships by meeting teammates and understanding their areas of expertise.

By Three Months, You’ll:

• Contribute to the design and implementation of key backend systems.
• Collaborate closely with Product and UX teams to deliver impactful features.
• Identify and address bottlenecks in our engineering processes.

By Six Months, You’ll:

• Take ownership of backend components, ensuring their reliability and scalability.
• Actively contribute to process improvements that enhance team productivity.
• Begin mentoring junior engineers, fostering technical growth within the team.