Senior Backend Software Engineer

• Navan is building the next generation of intelligent travel experiences, where loyalty, personalization, and AI agents help travelers make better decisions before, during, and after every trip
• As a Senior Software Engineer (Backend), you’ll drive the technical vision, architecture, and execution for the highly available, distributed services that form the backbone of Navan’s global travel and expense platform
• Architect Core Backend Systems: Design, build, and scale high-performance, fault-tolerant microservices that process millions of travel and expense transactions globally
• Lead Technical Initiatives: Drive complex, cross-functional engineering projects from conception to deployment, making critical architectural trade-offs and setting technical standards for the wider backend organization
• Optimize Performance & Reliability: Build robust APIs, asynchronous event-driven architectures, and scalable data pipelines with a relentless focus on low latency, high availability, and operational excellence
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with product management, engineering leadership, data, and platform teams to translate ambiguous business requirements into cohesive, enterprise-grade technical solutions
• Raise the Engineering Bar: Champion maintainable code, thoughtful abstractions, and rigorous testing. Act as a force multiplier by mentoring engineers, leading architecture reviews, and fostering a culture of strong operational ownership

Benefits

• Parental leave
• Commuter benefits
• Healthcare
• Flexible Vacation
• Health and Wellness
• Fuel for Connection
• Pet Friendly
• IATAN (travel-related discounts)
• 401k (retirement plan)
• Connectivity Allowance
• Learning & Development- 6+ years of software engineering experience building and operating highly scalable, distributed production systems at an enterprise or global scale
• Product mindset with the ability to balance immediate product delivery with long-term technical health and scalability
• Experience with travel platforms, fintech, payment processing, or complex financial ledgers is a strong plus
• Exceptional skills in systems observability, production debugging, and ensuring the reliability of critical Tier 1 services
• Deep technical expertise in backend engineering stacks such as Java, TypeScript/Node.js, Python, or Go, alongside a strong mastery of engineering fundamentals
• Extensive hands-on experience designing microservices, complex APIs, event-driven workflows (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ), caching strategies, and distributed databases
• Proven track record of driving technical vision and leading the architecture of large, multi-team projects from inception through to successful production rollouts