Principal Software Architect

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is a leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We’re also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business.

As an employee of KAYAK, you will be part of a travel company that operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands including momondo, Cheapflights and HotelsCombined, among others. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is in our DNA and every employee has an opportunity to make their mark. Our focus is on building the best travel search engine to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.

KAYAK for Business is a corporate travel management platform that helps companies book, manage, and service business travel at scale - from search and policy enforcement through to booking, servicing, AI-powered automation, and enterprise integrations. We are looking for a Principal Software Architect to help define the long-term technical vision and architecture strategy for the entire KAYAK for Business engineering organisation. This is a senior individual contributor role with broad influence across multiple engineering teams, working at the intersection of distributed systems, external integrations, and AI-driven product experiences.

This role is required to work from our Kaunas or Vilnius office at least 3 days per week.

In this role, you will

Define and own the long-term technical vision and architecture strategy for KAYAK for Business, spanning search, booking, servicing, AI, identity, and enterprise integrations.

Oversee the design of reliable, scalable, secure, extensible, and maintainable systems across the K4B platform.

Lead major technical initiatives that span multiple engineering teams, building alignment through clear communication and connecting technical priorities to business goals.

Lead architectural discovery for new projects: evaluate technical options, define system boundaries and integration points, run proofs of concept where needed, and produce clear design documents (RFCs, ADRs) for review.

Present architecture proposals to engineering leadership and cross-functional teams, facilitating collaborative decision-making on high-impact technical changes.

Identify and address architectural risks, technical debt, performance issues, and operational gaps across the K4B platform; propose and drive improvements that increase system stability and developer productivity.

Establish engineering standards for reliability, observability, recoverability, security, and maintainability across K4B engineering.

Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders across the business unit, sharing knowledge through design discussions, documentation, code review, and pairing.

Contribute to cross-team architectural alignment, working with other engineering teams to agree on shared patterns, contracts, and infrastructure.

Please apply if you have

Proven experience designing scalable architectures for e-commerce systems.

Strong proficiency in Java or another JVM-based language, with a solid understanding of how to build reliable, observable, and maintainable services.

A track record of leading architectural design work across multiple teams: producing design documents, facilitating technical reviews, and guiding teams through complex implementation decisions.

Proven ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams through communication, collaboration, and sound decision-making - without relying on direct authority.

Experience with observability and production operations - you understand how to instrument systems, interpret logs and metrics, and respond to production incidents.

Strong written and verbal communication skills in English; you can explain complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

A collaborative approach to technical leadership - you influence through clarity, shared understanding, and sound reasoning.

It would be an advantage if you also have

Experience in the travel technology domain, including familiarity with booking flows, order management, or integrations with travel distribution systems.

Experience with B2B integration and identity standards, including service-to-service authentication and enterprise identity platforms.

Experience integrating AI or machine learning capabilities into production backend systems.

Familiarity with event-driven architectures, message queues, or asynchronous processing patterns.

Experience working in a service-oriented monorepo environment.

Compensation

salary consists of three elements:

Base pay: from 7000 EUR up to 10000 EUR gross monthly.

In addition

Significant yearly bonuses, approx 10 percent of annual salary.

Booking Holdings RSU (Restricted Stock Units) package, worth 40000 USD gross, with possibility to receive yearly refreshes.

Benefits and Perks

Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year

Funds for your career growth

Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings

Generous additional Health Insurance

Flexible sick time off

Additional financial support for your sick leave

Additional day off on your birthday

Company-wide vacation week once a year (winter holidays)

Additional financial support during parental leave

Free lunch twice a week and daily snacks at the office

Free yoga twice a week

Paid volunteering time

No meeting Fridays

Office and team events such as summer camp, KAYAK birthday, winter party and more!

Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth

Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace

Internal Communities

Inclusion

At KAYAK, we want everyone to have the space to grow, share ideas and do great work. That’s why we’re focused on hiring the best talent from all walks of life and experiences, supporting them well and making sure no one feels like they have to fit a mold to belong here.

Need any adjustments for the interview, application or on the job? No problem - just give us a heads-up. We’ve got you.

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