Software Development Engineer III - C++

Expedia Group brands power global travel for everyone, everywhere. We design cutting-edge tech to make travel smoother and more memorable, and we create groundbreaking solutions for our partners. Our diverse, vibrant, and welcoming community is essential in driving our success.

Why Join Us?

To shape the future of travel, people must come first. Guided by our Values and Leadership Agreements, we foster an open culture where everyone belongs, differences are celebrated and know that when one of us wins, we all win.

We provide a full benefits package, including exciting travel perks, generous time-off, parental leave, a flexible work model (with some pretty cool offices), and career development resources, all to fuel our employees' passion for travel and ensure a rewarding career journey. We’re building a more open world. Join us.

Introduction to the Team

Our Technology Team partners with groups across Expedia Group to create innovative products, services, and tools that deliver high‑quality experiences for travelers, partners, and employees. A singular technology platform powered by data and machine learning provides secure, differentiated, and personalized experiences that drive loyalty and traveler satisfaction.

This role sits in Expedia Group’s core C++ engineering group, responsible for building and optimizing high‑performance C++ systems that power millions of travel experiences worldwide.

Join Expedia Group’s Engineering organization within our core Development division, where you’ll lead design and delivery of high‑performance C++ systems that support critical, large‑scale travel workloads. As a Software Development Engineer III, you will solve complex technical problems, evolve system architecture, and raise the engineering bar across the team in a collaborative, high‑impact environment.

In this role, you will:

• Own design and implementation of critical services and components, with a focus on clean API design, robust data modeling, and reliable system behavior.

• Lead and contribute to system design, including low‑level design decisions, to ensure services are scalable, observable, and maintainable.

• Implement high‑quality, well‑tested C++ code; conduct and drive code reviews; and help advance engineering standards, tooling, and best practices across the team.

• Collaborate closely with product, design, and partner engineering teams to deliver features end‑to‑end, balancing technical quality with delivery timelines.

• Safely integrate and operate AI/ML‑enabled solutions that improve outcomes, leveraging AI‑driven systems, tools, or workflows where appropriate.

• Work across multiple services or components within a domain, diagnosing complex production issues, improving performance, and contributing to operational excellence.

• Use telemetry and diagnostics (metrics, logs, tracing, profiling tools, experimentation frameworks) to analyze system behavior and drive data‑informed decisions.

• Mentor and coach other engineers, providing technical guidance, reviewing designs, and helping grow the team’s C++ and systems expertise.

• Influence longer‑term architecture and roadmap within your area, identifying and driving initiatives that improve reliability, performance, and developer productivity.

Minimum Qualifications

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

• 5+ years of relevant professional software engineering experience (or equivalent depth of experience).

• Demonstrated professional experience owning services or components within a broader production system.

• Strong proficiency in C++ and its ecosystem, including hands‑on experience with API design, data modeling, and system design (including low‑level design).

• Experience building, testing, deploying, and operating backend or full‑stack services in production environments, including participation in on‑call or incident response rotations as appropriate.

• Solid foundation in algorithms, data structures, and object‑oriented design.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building high‑performance, production‑grade C++ systems with a focus on performance optimization, memory efficiency, concurrency, and reliability at scale.

• Strong background in systems design and API development, including designing maintainable interfaces, data models, and evolving existing architectures in complex distributed environments.

• Demonstrated experience improving engineering quality through:

  • Refactoring legacy code,

  • Optimizing performance‑critical paths,

  • Strengthening observability,

  • Advancing testing and operational practices.

• Practical experience using telemetry and diagnostics (metrics, logs, tracing, profiling, experimentation) to analyze and improve system behavior.

• Exposure to integrating intelligent or AI‑enabled capabilities into backend systems (for example, inference APIs, personalization features, or AI‑assisted engineering workflows) and interest in leveraging emerging technologies to enhance system performance and developer productivity.

• Experience mentoring other engineers and contributing to hiring, onboarding, and raising the technical bar for the team.

Please note that this role is only available in Seattle, WA , in alignment with our flexible work model, which requires employees to be in-office at least three days a week. We are unable to offer relocation assistance for this role.

The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $146,000.00 to $204,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $233,500.00, 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.

Expedia Group is proud to offer a wide range of benefits to support employees and their families, including medical/dental/vision, paid time off, and an Employee Assistance Program. To fuel each employee’s passion for travel, we offer a wellness & travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and an International Airlines Travel Agent (IATAN) membership. View our full list of benefits .

Accommodation requests

If you need assistance with any part of the application or recruiting process due to a disability, or other physical or mental health conditions, please reach out to our Recruiting Accommodations Team through the Accommodation Request .

We are proud to be named as a Best Place to Work on Glassdoor in 2024 and be recognized for award-winning culture by organizations like Forbes, TIME, Disability:IN, and others.

Expedia Group's family of brands includes: Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™. © 2024 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. CST: 2029030-50

Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group’s Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never provide sensitive, personal information to someone unless you’re confident who the recipient is. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or any other messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official website to find and apply for job openings at Expedia Group is careers.expediagroup.com/jobs .

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.