---
title: 'Senior Full Stack Software Engineer at KAYAK'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-full-stack-software-engineer-kayak-kaunas-cnh49kx7eypx'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Senior Full Stack Software Engineer at KAYAK

- **Company:** KAYAK
- **Location:** Kaunas, Lithuania
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-08-19
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kayak/0834a7c7-08ba-4fc0-9738-6e8a9158ec7f

## Job description

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 are also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business. As part of KAYAK, you will join a travel company operating a portfolio of global metasearch brands, including momondo, Cheapflights, and HotelsCombined. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is in our DNA, and every employee has the opportunity to make their mark.

## The role

KAYAK is looking for a Senior Full Stack Engineer to join our SEM Experience team in Kaunas. The team builds and scales marketing experiences that help travelers discover KAYAK, including dynamic landing pages and user-journey tracking capabilities that personalize experiences and support engagement across our brands and platforms. You will work across the frontend and backend stack, partnering closely with engineers, product managers, designers, and marketing specialists. This is a hands-on senior individual contributor role with meaningful ownership of technical decisions, feature design, production reliability, and continuous improvement across the full application lifecycle.

In this role, you will

- Design, develop, and maintain full-stack product features used by millions of travelers.
- Build and optimize dynamic user-facing landing pages and supporting services that personalize content based on search intent and keywords.
- Develop and improve APIs, backend services, and integrations that support reliable user journeys and marketing experiences.
- Translate product and marketing requirements into robust, scalable technical solutions.
- Make sound architectural decisions, evaluate trade-offs, and build prototypes where needed to validate new approaches.
- Review and scope feature requests, helping the team turn broad ideas into clear, actionable engineering work.
- Collaborate with product managers, designers, marketing specialists, and fellow engineers to deliver well-integrated experiences.
- Participate actively in code reviews, raising the quality bar while incorporating constructive feedback.
- Write and maintain unit, integration, and end-to-end tests across the frontend and backend.
- Troubleshoot production issues, perform root-cause analysis, and implement preventative improvements.
- Identify opportunities to improve performance, reliability, maintainability, and developer experience across the stack.
- Share knowledge, support technical discussions, and mentor less-experienced engineers through day-to-day collaboration.

Please apply if you have

- A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- 5+ years of professional experience building and maintaining web applications.
- Strong hands-on experience with frontend technologies such as TypeScript, React, Redux, and CSS, including Sass or Less.
- Strong hands-on experience with backend technologies such as Java and Spring.
- Experience working with relational databases, preferably MySQL, and writing effective SQL.
- A solid understanding of programming fundamentals, software design principles, and web application architecture.
- Experience working across multiple layers of a full-stack system, including UI, backend services, databases, and search technologies such as Elasticsearch.
- Experience writing and maintaining automated unit and end-to-end tests.
- Strong debugging, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
- The ability to work independently, take ownership, and collaborate effectively in a distributed, cross-functional team.
- Strong English communication skills, both written and verbal.

## Preferred qualifications

- Familiarity with Git and web servers such as Tomcat or Apache.
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks.
- Exposure to Docker, Kubernetes, or other containerization technologies.
- Experience operating high-traffic, consumer-facing web applications.
- Experience with observability, production troubleshooting, and performance optimization.
- Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical initiatives without formal people-management responsibility.

## Compensation

Compensation consists of three elements:

- Base pay: from €3,330 up to €6,660 gross per month.
- Significant yearly bonuses, approximately 10% of annual salary.
- Booking Holdings RSU (Restricted Stock Units) package worth $20,000 gross, with the possibility of receiving 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 and additional financial support for sick leave.
- Additional day off on your birthday.
- Company-wide vacation week once a year during the 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, including summer camp, KAYAK birthday, and winter party.
- Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth.
- Company-paid Headspace subscription.
- Internal communities.

Inclusion At KAYAK, we want everyone to have the space to grow, share ideas, and do great work. That’s why we focus on hiring the best talent from all walks of life and experiences, supporting them well, and making sure no one feels they have to fit a mold to belong here. If you need accommodations during the application or interview process, or on the job, we’re here to support you. Please reach out to your recruiter to request any accommodations.

## #LI-MP1

## 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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