About the Role & Vision
At Booking.com, our mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. The newly formed Attractions Connectivity team in Manchester is embarking on a foundational mission: scaling and optimizing how we integrate third‑party providers (think onboarding iconic destinations like the Eiffel Tower or Sagrada Familia).
Currently, onboarding can take up to 6 months. Our 5‑year vision is to reduce that to one week per integration. We are building a brand‑new, robust framework from scratch to achieve this—and we plan to lean hard on AI to automate and build these future integration flows.
We are looking for 3 Contract Software Engineers to join at the absolute ground floor to help us stand up the repos, shape the foundations, and build a highly resilient framework.
- Term: Initial 6‑month contract (with potential for review toward the end of the year)
- Location: Manchester office (Strong preference for a hybrid model: 2 days a week in‑office to collaborate closely with the scaling permanent team)
- Start Date: Targets for 1st July 2026
What You’ll Do
- Build Greenfield Frameworks: Design and implement robust backend connectivity services and APIs using a modern Java or Kotlin stack.
- Integrate with “Inflexible” APIs: Work creatively around third‑party partner APIs that we cannot control or alter, ensuring reliable data mapping and handling.
- Champion Code Reliability: Heavily focus on writing comprehensive automated test suites to support every piece of code you deliver, laying the groundwork for a future automated testing framework.
- Shape AI‑Friendly Repos: Help set up repositories and documentation (e.g., robust Claude.md files or similar prompt‑engineering context) so the framework is optimized to leverage AI skills for generating new integrations.
What You’ll Bring
Absolute Non‑Negotiables
- Strong Backend Engineering: Solid experience in either Java OR Kotlin (experience in both is not mandatory; comfort in either is fine).
- Automated Testing Mindset: This is a role for a feature engineer who is passionate about writing their own automated tests to support high‑quality code delivery. (We are not looking for pure QA/automation testers).
- Distributed Systems & APIs: Practical experience handling integration complexities (retries, timeouts, partial failure states, and external REST APIs).
Highly Desirable (The Wishlist)
- AI‑Adjacent Engineering: Experience setting up code repositories to be AI‑friendly or working alongside LLMs/AI tooling to accelerate development.
- Cloud & Operations: Hands‑on experience with AWS, cloud‑native deployments (Docker, Kubernetes), and a default mindset toward observability and monitoring.
- Domain Exposure: Prior experience dealing with external integrations in travel, ticketing, or marketplace domains (e.g., Ticketmaster, OTAs) is a bonus, but not required if your core technical skills are sharp.
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