Staff Backend Software Engineer, Flights
Staff backend engineer on Navan's (TripActions) Flights team, building and scaling the flight platform behind their business-travel product. Day to day: hands-on coding of high-scale Java/Spring Boot microservices on AWS, plus technical leadership, mentorship, and end-to-end ownership of critical features.
- Compensation
- $129.6K–$288K / yr
- Location
- New York, United States
- Work setup
- Onsite
- Seniority
- Staff
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 10+ years
- Category
- Backend
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 10+ years of experience building and scaling complex systems in fast-paced or large-scale environments
- Strong product mindset with empathy for the user and drive for customer experience
- Proven track record as a hands-on coder with high-volume, high-quality output plus technical leadership
- In-depth experience with Java, Spring Boot, and AWS (or other cloud provider), including JVM performance, optimization, and cloud architecture
- Strong expertise in distributed systems, microservices, and API design
- Ownership mentality: delivering production-quality maintainable code and supporting features post-release via monitoring and troubleshooting
- Ability to operate comfortably in highly ambiguous environments
- Collaborative team player effective with global, cross-functional partners
- Commitment to engineering excellence across the software development lifecycle
- Problem-solving mindset for technically demanding, customer-impacting challenges
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent hands-on experience
Nice to have
- Domain knowledge in the travel industry (flights, bookings, or inventory management)
Full description
At Navan, “It’s all about the user. All of them.” We’re passionate about providing a seamless one-stop experience for business travelers, no matter how they travel, where they stay, or where they’re going. Our engineers work closely with product managers, designers, and data scientists to build innovative tools and services that provide a frictionless, efficient, and enjoyable traveler experience.
This is a unique opportunity that combines the hyper-growth, fast-paced environment of a startup, with the perks, opportunity size, and impact of an established company. Our teams are at the forefront of the next-generation of modern airline retailing.
As a Staff Backend Software Engineer in the Flights group, you’ll play an essential part in building and scaling the next-generation flight platform, Navan’s flagship product that drives global business growth. This is a high-scale, complex environment where your work will impact customers worldwide. You’ll solve challenging problems, collaborate with engineers, product managers, and designers across the globe, and contribute to a platform trusted by major enterprises.
As a technical leader and contributor on the Flights team, you will partner closely with other engineers to drive change and improve systems and developer experience. Although you will be at one of our highest levels of seniority, all individual contributors are expected to be hands-on and contribute code.
What You’ll Do:
- Build at Scale: Act as a prolific individual contributor while providing technical leadership and mentorship to engineers across the team. Design and develop robust, high-performance architecture and services that support our flagship product globally.
- Champion a Product Mindset: Cultivate a deep understanding of our customers' needs and strive for excellence in the customer experience, translating user insights into seamless, high-performance technical realities.
- Solve Complex and Ambiguous Problems: Apply deep technical expertise and creativity to turn highly ambiguous problem spaces into clear, actionable technical solutions, addressing large-scale engineering challenges, and driving improvements in reliability, performance, and user experience.
- Deliver End-to-End Business Impact: Own critical features end-to-end. Collaborate closely with product managers and designers, ship high-impact features, monitor their operational health, and ensure key technical decisions directly drive exceptional quality, user value, and positive business outcomes.
- Collaborate Across Teams: Work effectively as part of a global, cross-functional team, partnering with fellow engineers, product managers, designers, and business leaders to deliver impactful solutions and elevate team performance.