Hybrid Software Engineering Manager en Booking Holdings

The Engineering Manager for the CoE Integrations team in Booking.com's Cars Rental vertical will lead a high-performing, cross-disciplinary group focused on transforming supplier onboarding through operational excellence and cutting-edge technology. This role drives the evolution of supplier integrations onto the Supplier Gateway Service (SGS) platform, pioneering the use of AI to automate onboarding processes, accelerate partner setup, and deliver scalable, self-serve integration capabilities. By championing rigorous code standards, continuous process optimization, and deep collaboration within product and engineering, the Engineering Manager ensures seamless, reliable connections between rental car suppliers and Booking.com's global supply ecosystem. Their leadership empowers the team to solve complex technical challenges, maximize efficiency, and realize tangible business impact—enabling travellers rapid access to the broadest, highest-quality car rental options worldwide.

Responsiblities

People Leadership

• Inspire, motivate, and directly manage engineers in multiple teams and in various roles, fostering a culture of innovation, ownership, and teamwork.

• Solve business problems by leading cross-functional initiatives using AI and automation to streamline processes.

• Take initiative to address the broader technical needs of the platform, always keeping supplier and traveller experience at the center.

• Contribute to the growth of Booking.com Cars through recruitment, mentorship, and knowledge sharing within the team and beyond.

• Represent Booking.com values, nurture and develop talent, and build strong relationships within the cars rental vertical and wider organization.

• Foster a collaborative, high-performing, and inclusive environment, turning individual ideas into shared team achievements.

• Lead by example: take proactive ownership and encourage continuous improvement in technical and operational excellence.

Technology, Craft & Delivery

• Champion technical incident management across supplier integrations, ensuring rapid response and sustainable solutions for platform reliability.

• Lead impactful projects combining hands-on coding with coaching and supporting the team, especially around AI-driven automation in supplier onboarding.

• Continuously drive quality and process improvements, leveraging data and experimentation to optimize integration speed and supplier experience.

• Cultivate a strong sense of technical ownership, excellence, and accountability for integrations, including architectural upgrades and platform modernization.

• Manage complex technical stakeholders as suppliers connect with Booking.com's cars supply infrastructure, advocating high standards and seamless interoperability.

• Contribute to evolution of best practices, data quality, and automation across the broader Cars organization.

• Enable the delivery of strategic engineering objectives—accelerating supplier onboarding, expanding supply base, and supporting innovative business models.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship, getting into architectural and code detail when required, supporting supplier-facing features and automated API documentation review.

Architecture & Product Strategy

• Act as a strategic partner to Product in defining and delivering the roadmap for supplier integrations—focusing on AI and scalable automation.

• Lead architectural vision and provide guidance for evolving the platform, ensuring robustness, compliance, and support for future business needs.

• Build new products and operational processes, negotiating and influencing their prioritization in the roadmap.

Qualification

• Minimum 8 years software development experience, including hands-on leadership of engineering teams (minimum 2 years management).

• Strong skills in system design, distributed systems, and programming (Java, Spring, Dropwizard preferred; experience with Node.js, JavaScript frameworks also valuable).

• Proven track record designing and developing APIs, and building secure, high-traffic integration platforms—ideally with exposure to partner/supplier connectivity at scale.

• Experience with cloud deployments, modern data streaming (Kafka), and databases (Cassandra, MySQL), and familiarity with integration reliability and monitoring.

• Demonstrated success delivering technical initiatives that improve efficiency, automation, and quality—especially leveraging AI/machine learning for process optimisation.

• Deep understanding of integration testing paradigms (unit, integration, end-to-end) and defining or upholding SLOs/KPIs for mission-critical services.

• Excellent communication skills with ability to influence and collaborate across product, engineering, and external stakeholders at all levels.

• Experience driving process improvements and supporting platform modernization migrations, onboarding documentation, and supplier self-serve initiatives.

• A ‘can do’ and proactive attitude with high ownership, adaptable problem solving, and continuous interest in learning, mentoring, and elevating team culture.

• Experience in travel, e-commerce, or B2B supplier-facing platforms is a plus, especially where AI or automation is used for onboarding or integration processes.