Senior Software Engineer

English is mandatory

Mission Context

As part of the reinforcement of an Engineering team dedicated to booking journeys, we are looking for a Senior Software Engineer able to work on critical backend and API topics within a high-traffic environment, strongly focused on performance, reliability, scalability, and delivery excellence.

The Booking team is at the core of the platform. It works on topics directly related to the booking funnel, availability, transaction security, API robustness, and the overall quality of the user experience.

A key part of the mission will be to contribute to the design and development of a new API layer aimed at decoupling the frontend from the existing backend systems. This API will become a central component of the Booking architecture, requiring a strong API-first mindset, solid system design capabilities, and a high level of engineering maturity.

The stack includes PHP, but the goal is not to hire a pure PHP expert. We are primarily looking for a senior Software Engineer who can quickly understand a complex environment, deliver efficiently, and bring a strong 360° engineering mindset across architecture, API design, testing, CI/CD, scalability, performance, security, and observability.

Role and Responsibilities

The main responsibilities will include:

• Designing, developing, maintaining, and evolving backend services, mainly in a PHP environment

• Contributing to the construction of an API layer designed to decouple the frontend from backend systems

• Working with an API-first approach, including OpenAPI specifications, API contracts, and robust API design

• Implementing and improving automated API testing to secure API quality, reliability, and non-regression

• Quickly understanding the existing architecture and integrating efficiently into a high-traffic information system

• Participating in technical design decisions, beyond simply executing tickets

• Improving the reliability, performance, scalability, and maintainability of services

• Working on API-related topics: security, robustness, contracts, performance, monitoring, and error handling

• Contributing to CI/CD practices and ensuring high-quality delivery pipelines

• Identifying technical risks and proposing pragmatic solutions

• Being proactive on architecture, code quality, observability, testing strategy, and industrialization topics

• Collaborating with Engineering Managers, Product Managers, frontend engineers, backend engineers, and other technical teams

• Using AI tools intelligently to accelerate development, improve quality, and increase productivity, while maintaining critical thinking and technical ownership

Recruitment Process

The process includes three steps:

1. Live coding with the Engineering Manager

2. System Design interview with the Engineering Manager

3. Technical discussion with the VP Engineering

Profile Sought

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer who is autonomous, quick to understand complex topics, and able to deliver with a high level of quality.

The right profile does not necessarily need to be a long-standing PHP expert, but must be comfortable enough with PHP to become quickly operational within the existing stack.

We are looking for someone with a strong 360° system vision: a person able to understand how their work impacts the overall architecture, the frontend/backend separation, API reliability, production quality, scalability, and long-term maintainability.

Key Skills and Experience

The ideal candidate will bring:

• Strong backend software engineering experience

• Good working knowledge of PHP, even if PHP is not their main historical expertise

• Strong API design experience, ideally with an API-first approach

• Experience with OpenAPI specifications and API contract design

• Experience with automated API testing and non-regression testing

• Solid understanding of CI/CD practices and delivery automation

• Ability to work on complex or high-traffic systems

• Good understanding of system design, scalability, performance, and reliability

• Sensitivity to API security, robustness, error handling, and monitoring

• Experience with observability practices: logs, metrics, alerts, tracing, monitoring

• Ability to investigate unfamiliar topics, dig deep, and become autonomous quickly

• Smart and pragmatic use of AI tools in the development workflow

Mindset Sought

The key requirement for this mission is a strong level of autonomy, energy, and engineering maturity.

We are not looking for someone who simply executes tasks, but for someone able to:

• Quickly understand a technical and product context

• Jump into unknown topics without being afraid of ambiguity

• Deal with abstract or complex technical problems

• Dig into what they do not know and become autonomous quickly

• Intelligently challenge existing technical choices

• Deliver quickly without compromising quality

• Take a step back and understand the impact of their developments

• Think beyond code: architecture, API design, automated testing, performance, security, maintainability, observability, and CI/CD

• Demonstrate strong ownership of the topics they work on

• Be comfortable in a demanding, fast-paced, result-oriented environment

• Integrate into a senior team with a strong level of technical discussion

What Will Make the Difference

The most relevant profiles will combine:

• A strong backend / software engineering culture

• A 360° system vision and the ability to understand architecture end-to-end

• The ability to work with PHP without necessarily making it their main specialty

• Strong experience designing and testing APIs

• Experience with OpenAPI, API-first design, and automated API testing

• Experience in complex, scalable, or high-traffic environments

• The ability to reason in terms of architecture, systems, reliability, and long-term maintainability

• A pragmatic approach: understand, investigate, decide, deliver

• High energy, curiosity, and the ability to jump into unknown problems

• A smart and discerning use of AI in their day-to-day development work