Principal Software Development Engineer, ML-Powered Flight Search

At Expedia Group, we help travelers explore the world, one journey at a time. As a global travel company powered by passionate people, trusted partnerships, and leading technology, we connect travelers, partners, and advertisers through our consumer brands, B2B network, and travel advertising business.

Here, you'll do meaningful work that helps millions of people discover, book, and experience travel with more ease, confidence, and joy. Our five Behaviors-Traveler First, Think Big, Operate with Excellence, Ownership Mindset, and Succeed Together-help foster a supportive environment where people can grow their careers and have the flexibility, benefits, and support to do their best work. Join us and build for travelers everywhere.

Introduction to Team

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. 

The Air Shopping Platform organization owns the end‑to‑end platform that powers Flight Search, Pricing, and Shopping across all Expedia Group points of sale, partnering closely with product, analytics, and connectivity teams. We are responsible for building a reliable, highly performant, scalable, and cost‑effective platform that delivers fast and relevant flight offers to the shopping experiences via Flight Search, Flight Details, and additional supporting APIs. The team is primarily accountable for driving flight transaction growth at Expedia Group across many, concurrent workstreams.  
In this role, you will:  

• Lead the architectural vision, design, and delivery of complex software solutions across multiple technical domains.  

• Drive system design, API development, and data modeling to ensure secure, maintainable, and high-performing platforms.  

• Guide and mentor engineering teams, fostering technical excellence and innovation across projects and domains.  

• Safely integrate and operate AI/ML-enabled solutions that improve outcomes, championing best practices in responsible AI deployment.  

• Optimize operational excellence by implementing robust software development practices and scalable engineering processes.  

• Collaborate with cross-functional partners to deliver resilient, business-aligned technology solutions and support continuous improvement.  

 

Minimum Qualifications:  

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

• 12+ years of relevant professional experience.  

• Demonstrated expertise in large-scale system architecture, technical decision making, and delivery of complex multi-domain solutions.  

• Proven track record in designing and operating secure, high-quality, and scalable software systems.  

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

 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Experience leading architectural transformation and modernization initiatives for large, distributed systems.  

• Demonstrated success guiding engineering organizations through periods of significant growth, change, or complexity.  

• Expertise in full stack engineering with proven ability to operate across multiple technical domains and platforms.  

• Track record of championing data-driven decision making and operational excellence for mission-critical systems.  

• Experience building and deploying neural search and embedding-based retrieval systems, including vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS), semantic search architectures, and large-scale similarity search at scale with sub-100ms latency requirements.  

• Strong experience with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) for production ML systems, including designing and deploying ranking models, personalization engines, and real-time inference pipelines with knowledge of model serving patterns (e.g., TorchServe, TensorFlow Serving, BentoML) and online/offline evaluation frameworks. 

The total cash range for this position in Seattle 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.

Benefits and perks

Expedia Group offers benefits and perks designed to support employees and their families, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, an Employee Assistance Program, wellness and travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) membership. Learn more about life at Expedia Group at https://careers.expediagroup.com/life.

Accommodation requests

Expedia Group is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruiting experience. If you need an accommodation or adjustment due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request at https://expedia.service-now.com/askeg?id=job_accommodation.

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group includes three flagship consumer brands - Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo - along with a leading B2B travel business and travel advertising offerings. Across our brands and business, we help travelers explore the world with confidence and ease.

Important notice

Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group's Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never share sensitive personal information unless you are confident of the recipient. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official place to find and apply for roles is https://careers.expediagroup.com/jobs/.

Equal Opportunity

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, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. 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.