Staff Backend Software Engineer

Hopper is a leading travel platform that powers some of the largest travel portals in the world. They are seeking a Staff Backend Software Engineer to enhance their technology solutions, focusing on building scalable systems and integrating AI to improve product development and partner experiences.

Responsibilities:

• Identify and execute improvements to the codebase that make it easier for both humans and AI agents to move fast and ship safely
• Work with a group of senior engineers in a low-process environment powered by trust and autonomy
• Drive decisions and consensus asynchronously with thoughtful documentation and specs
• Own features end-to-end — from the backend systems to the partner-facing surface. You'll primarily work on the backend, but expect to use AI tooling to move across the stack as needed. We care that you can ship a complete feature, not that you can write production-grade React from memory
• Architect scalable solutions and foundational patterns that let us efficiently launch new partner experiences
• Work directly with PMs and business partners to define and refine our roadmap. Your voice and technical vision matter
• Collaborate with a diverse group of people, giving and receiving feedback for growth

Requirements:

• Experience designing the guardrails and feedback loops that keep AI-assisted development productive and reliable
• Experience with, or a mastery-level willingness to learn, distributed system development in Scala
• The ability to articulate not just how you'd solve a problem, but why, and what tradeoffs you're accepting
• A natural drive to fearlessly dive into an unknown codebase and deliver results fast
• Strong product thinking — your conception of quality and architecture is anchored in the customer experience, not in technical elegance for its own sake
• The ability to direct AI agents and automated workflows to build and maintain complex systems, and the judgment to know when to step in and when to let them run