Principal Software Development Engineer

Expedia Group brands power global travel for everyone, everywhere. We design cutting-edge tech to make travel smoother and more memorable, and we create groundbreaking solutions for our partners. Our diverse, vibrant, and welcoming community is essential in driving our success.

Why Join Us?

To shape the future of travel, people must come first. Guided by our Values and Leadership Agreements, we foster an open culture where everyone belongs, differences are celebrated and know that when one of us wins, we all win.

We provide a full benefits package, including exciting travel perks, generous time-off, parental leave, a flexible work model (with some pretty cool offices), and career development resources, all to fuel our employees' passion for travel and ensure a rewarding career journey. We’re building a more open world. Join us.

Principal Software Development Engineer

Our Technology Team partners with teams across Expedia Group to create innovative products, services, and tools to deliver high-quality experiences for travelers, partners, and our employees. A singular technology platform powered by data and machine learning provides secure, differentiated, and personalized experiences that drive loyalty and traveler satisfaction.
Expedia Global Payments (EGP) is looking for top engineering talent to help drive the development of our payment platform, seamlessly roll out new payment methods, and continuously improve on our operational excellence and engineering practices. We offer a highly dynamic set of services that enable customers from all over the world to pay for travel in a variety of ways. We build, operate, and improve payment services for Expedia Group's brands, our suppliers (hoteliers, airlines, vacation rental owners/agencies, etc.), and our corporate needs. We do this accurately and at scale, processing over $100 billion payments in 55+ currencies in over 155 countries every year, and across a diverse set of payment options! This opportunity presents great technical challenges and the ability to have a tremendous business impact.
Technology and innovation are at the heart of our organization. We provide solutions that reduce the cost of payments and improve performance, scalability, availability, and resiliency. We also provide an abundance of functional support to services in our platform, and the needs are ever-growing, as we adapt to new payment solutions and capabilities.

This position focuses not only on implementing innovative software solutions for e-commerce payments systems at scale but also on being a role model and mentor to your fellow engineers. You will get to expand your skills in building highly scalable solutions while influencing others and raising the bar on the overall level of excellence within the team. You will also get the opportunity to influence decisions across the technology ecosystem within Expedia Group by being a key domain guide. Additionally, your input will be critical to the selection of new senior-level hires on the team.
In this role, you will:

• Lead the design and implementation of complex, scalable software systems and services that span multiple domains or organizations.

• Drive architectural decisions, ensuring quality, reliability, and maintainability across large-scale distributed systems.

• Mentor, influence, and develop engineering teams, fostering technical excellence and best practices.

• Champion the integration and operation of AI/ML‑enabled solutions that improve business and customer outcomes.

• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to define technical solutions and deliver impactful business results.

• Guide the adoption of modern development methodologies, system design (LLD), API design, and robust data modeling practices.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field; or Equivalent related professional experience.

• 10+ years of relevant professional experience.

• Proven track record of leading complex technical initiatives across multiple systems, domains, or organizational boundaries.

• Demonstrated expertise in system design, large-scale architecture, API design, and data modeling.

• Familiarity with AI-driven systems, tools, or workflows and applying AI/ML concepts to real world products.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience architecting and operating distributed systems at scale, including service-oriented and microservices architectures.

• Deep knowledge of designing, integrating, and optimizing AI/ML‑enabled features into production software environments.

• Demonstrated leadership in driving operational excellence, automation, and continuous improvement across engineering teams.

• Skilled in data-driven decision making and leveraging metrics to optimize product and technology outcomes.

• Expertise in safely integrating and operating AI/ML‑enabled solutions to deliver measurable business improvements.

The total cash range for this position in Austin is $231,000.00 to $323,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $369,500.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.

Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.

Expedia Group is proud to offer a wide range of benefits to support employees and their families, including medical/dental/vision, paid time off, and an Employee Assistance Program. To fuel each employee’s passion for travel, we offer a wellness & travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and an International Airlines Travel Agent (IATAN) membership. View our full list of benefits.

Accommodation requests

If you need assistance with any part of the application or recruiting process due to a disability, or other physical or mental health conditions, please reach out to our Recruiting Accommodations Team through the Accommodation Request.

We are proud to be named as a Best Place to Work on Glassdoor in 2024 and be recognized for award-winning culture by organizations like Forbes, TIME, Disability:IN, and others.

Expedia Group's family of brands includes: Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™. © 2024 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. CST: 2029030-50

Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group’s Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never provide sensitive, personal information to someone unless you’re confident who the recipient is. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or any other messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official website to find and apply for job openings at Expedia Group is careers.expediagroup.com/jobs.

Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization.