Engineering Manager, Flights

KAYAK

Engineering Manager leading backend team for KAYAK's Flights Meta search business. Focused on backend architecture, engineering decisions, and team mentorship in travel technology.

Posted 7/7/2026full-timeKaunas • 🇱🇹 LithuaniaSeniorLead💰 €6,000 - €7,080 per monthWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed SystemsJava

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead and mentor a team of backend engineers, providing technical guidance, performance feedback, and career development support.
Own the team’s technical roadmap and align priorities with Flights product goals, technical health, and the broader Meta Search strategy.
Drive backend architecture and engineering decisions across the flight search domain, including APIs, service architecture, quality, scalability, and maintainability.
Partner closely with the Flights Product Manager, Flights Meta frontend engineering leadership, QA, and Design to plan and deliver complex cross-functional work.
Ensure features are properly refined before sprint commitment, with clear Definition of Done, visible ownership, and strong coordination across backend and frontend work streams.
Improve execution by reducing blockers, strengthening developer handoffs, and avoiding unnecessary waterfall patterns between backend and frontend delivery.
Raise the bar on production readiness through strong practices in testing, code coverage, monitoring, logging, performance validation, and operational readiness.
Support reliable operation of the Flights business by helping the team respond effectively to incidents, use production tooling well, and communicate clearly during high-severity issues.
Foster a collaborative and inclusive team culture that encourages accountability, knowledge sharing, continuous improvement, and high engineering standards.
Recruit, onboard, and grow backend engineering talent to support the Flights Meta roadmap over time.

Requirements

What you’ll need

8+ years of backend or platform software development experience, with strong knowledge of distributed systems and service architecture.
A degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field — or equivalent practical experience.
Experience leading or managing backend engineers, with a strong track record in coaching, performance management, and team development.
Strong technical fundamentals in API design, backend frameworks, software architecture, and modern engineering best practices.
Confidence with observability and monitoring tools, and a track record of improving reliability and operational excellence.
Strong project leadership skills, including the ability to prioritize across roadmap work, technical debt, and cross-team dependencies.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across engineering, product, design, and business stakeholders.
Professional proficiency in written and spoken English.
Experience with Java and modern backend frameworks in production environments is strongly preferred.
Experience leading teams in agile development environments, including sprint planning, refinement, and cross-functional delivery, is strongly preferred.
Experience working on search, booking, or other high-throughput systems is a strong plus.

Benefits

Comp & 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
Additional financial support for your sick leave
Additional day off on your birthday
Company-wide vacation week once a year (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 such as summer camp, KAYAK birthday, winter party and more!
Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
Internal Communities

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

JavaBackend FrameworksSoftware ArchitectureObservability ToolsPerformance ValidationCode CoverageMonitoringTesting PracticesTechnical Roadmap DevelopmentIncident Response

Soft Skills

CommunicationCollaborationCoachingPerformance ManagementTeam Development

Certifications

Degree in Computer ScienceDegree in Software Engineering