---
title: 'Data Engineer at KAYAK'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-kayak-berlin-7mwf1kgskwzm'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-31'
---

# Data Engineer at KAYAK

- **Company:** KAYAK
- **Location:** Berlin, Germany
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-31
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kayak/9b36be69-e7b5-4a65-bcc2-cd5f563c1081

## Job description

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is the world's 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 at our core 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 is looking for a Data Engineer to build the trusted data foundation behind machine learning across the company. You’ll partner with data scientists to understand their modeling needs and what the available data can (and can’t) support. You’ll transform large-scale raw data into production-ready datasets and build the scalable pipelines that make them dependable and reusable. Working across Data Science, Data Engineering, and Data Platform, you’ll help address data gaps and bring new machine-learning use cases into production. If you’re excited to shape how teams across KAYAK use data to build and scale machine learning, we’d love to hear from you. This role will be required to work from our Berlin office 3 days per week.

In this role, you will:

- Partner with the Data Science teams and help translate modeling needs into dataset requirements, then collaborate with Data Engineering and Data Platform to extend foundational pipelines into ML-ready datasets.
- Design scalable and efficient dataset workflows and ensure pipeline reliability through validation, monitoring, and alerting; diagnose and resolve issues.
- Ship production-ready data solutions that enable ML applications and deliver real-world impact on user experience and key business metrics.
- Identify gaps and opportunities, contributing to technical decisions and roadmap priorities that strengthen the data foundation for current and future ML use cases.
- Collaborate across Data Science, Engineering, and Data Platform, communicating technical decisions, findings, and trade-offs clearly and concisely to technical and non-technical audiences.

Please apply if you have:

- Strong technical foundations in data engineering, software engineering, and systems design, backed by a track record of building and operating reliable, large-scale data pipelines. Demonstrated capability matters more than academic credentials.
- Hands-on experience developing production data pipelines, with the ability to clearly explain the problems addressed, your specific contributions, and the resulting impact.
- Ownership, sound judgment, and systems thinking, with the ability to navigate technical, reliability, cost, and risk trade-offs while working independently and recognizing when to seek guidance.
- Fluency with AI-assisted workflows, leveraging modern tools to improve productivity and quality while critically evaluating their outputs and limitations.
- Curiosity, humility, and a collaborative mindset, with a commitment to continuous learning, sharing knowledge, and improving together.

Bonus qualifications

- Hands-on experience with technologies relevant to KAYAK’s stack, such as Kafka, Flink, Iceberg, Trino, AWS, Kubernetes, Airflow, Python, SQL, and schema-based data contracts.
- Experience with feature stores or feature pipelines.
- Familiarity with Agile ways of working, such as sprint planning and team ceremonies.

Benefits and Perks:

- Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year
- Focus on mental health and well-being:
- Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
- Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
- Company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!)
- No meeting Fridays
- Paid parental leave
- Paid volunteer time
- Focus on your career growth:
- Development Dollars
- Leadership development
- Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
- Travel Discounts
- Employee Resource Groups
- 6 weeks paid vacation + a day off for your birthday
- Free lunch 2 days per week
- Pension plan contributions
- Public transportation subsidies
- Bike leasing program
- Monthly social events, Thursday happy hours, sports teams
- An awesome office in Friedrichshain, Berlin

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.

## #LI-AS1

## About KAYAK

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: KAYAK is the world’s leading travel metasearch engine, enabling travelers to compare flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages from hundreds of sites in one place.
- **Entity Type**: Private (subsidiary of Booking Holdings Inc., NASDAQ: BKNG)
- **Headquarters**: Stamford, Connecticut, USA (with 15 international offices)
- **Founded**: 2004
- **Founders**: Steve Hafner (former CEO until February 2026) and Paul English

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Online travel, travel technology, metasearch.
- **Target customers**: B2C (leisure and business travelers) and B2B (travel providers, advertisers, and corporate clients via KAYAK for Business).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To help travelers make confident travel decisions by providing transparent, comprehensive search results that put control back in their hands. KAYAK believes “travel makes the world better.”

## Products & Services
- **KAYAK Metasearch**: Core product allowing comparison of flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages from hundreds of travel sites.
- **KAYAK for Business (K4B)**: Free corporate travel solution for business travelers.
- **KAYAK Mobile App**: iOS and Android app offering seamless travel planning, price forecasts, price alerts, trip management, and AI-powered search.
- **KAYAK.ai**: AI-powered travel assistant providing personalized tips, live pricing, and conversational booking.
- **Explore Tool**: Inspires spontaneous travel by showing destinations within a chosen budget.
- **Trips**: Personal travel assistant for organizing, managing, and sharing itineraries with real-time flight status.
- **Price Forecast & Alerts**: Predicts price trends and notifies users of changes for flights, hotels, and car rentals.
- **KAYAK for Partners & Advertisers**: Commission-based and advertising revenue models.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed as a subsidiary; parent Booking Holdings has a market cap of ~$150+ billion (as of mid-2025).
- **Key Metric**: Processes billions of searches annually; 800+ team members; 60+ international sites in 25+ languages.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Owned by Booking Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), which acquired KAYAK in 2013. Partners with hundreds of airlines, hotels, online travel agencies, and car rental companies.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Named #1 Best Airfare Search Site by Frommer’s (2024, 2025).
  - Won World’s Best Flight & Hotel Comparison Website at World Travel Tech Awards (2022–2024).
  - Recognized by Statista & COMPUTER BILD as a Top Online Platform 2025.
  - First mainstream travel company to introduce AI-powered conversational search (KAYAK AI Mode).
  - Expanded portfolio of 7 travel search brands globally.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover in travel metasearch**: Pioneered the concept in 2004, creating a trusted, comprehensive comparison platform.
- **Unbiased results**: Displays fares from all major providers without favoritism, clearly labeling booking sources.
- **Massive data advantage**: Processes billions of searches, enabling powerful AI/ML tools like Price Forecast and AI Mode.
- **Global brand portfolio**: Manages 7 brands (KAYAK, SWOODOO, checkfelix, momondo, Cheapflights, Mundi, HotelsCombined) with a global footprint.
- **Strong financial backing**: Part of Booking Holdings, providing stability and resources for innovation.
- **High trust & recognition**: Consistently ranked #1 by leading travel publications and awards.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI & personalization**: Leading with AI-powered search and conversational planning to improve user experience.
- **Expanding corporate travel**: Growing KAYAK for Business as a free, self-service corporate travel tool.
- **Global scale**: Continuing to expand international sites and language support.
- **Innovation in search tools**: Developing new features like Price Forecast, Explore, and real-time trip management.
- **Maintaining transparency**: Strengthening trust through clear labeling and fair marketplace practices.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission-driven, data-obsessed team of 800+ passionate about travel technology; emphasis on career growth, skill development, and individual learning.
- **Work policy**: Hybrid model – team members work from the office three days a week, with flexibility to come in more often. Some roles are fully remote (US-based).
- **Perks**: Part of a global network including OpenTable and a portfolio of travel metasearch brands; employee-resource groups for under-represented communities; global equal-pay policy.
- **Engineering culture**: Strong focus on data, AI, and scalable systems (billions of queries); tech stack includes modern Java, frontend frameworks, and ETL tools.
- **Global opportunities**: 15 international offices with opportunities to work across teams.
- **Recognition**: Named a top employer by Built In and industry awards.
- **Caution**: KAYAK warns of fraudulent job ads – all genuine recruitment ends with @kayak.com, and no payment is ever requested from candidates.

## Sources
1. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/careers/)
2. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/about)
3. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/c/help/about/)
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/kayak)
5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/kayak)

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