Software Development Engineer III - C++

Expedia Group•Seattle, WA

2d•$146,000 - $233,500•Hybrid

About The Position

Expedia Group is seeking a Software Development Engineer III with C++ expertise to join their core C++ engineering group. This role involves designing, building, and optimizing high-performance C++ systems that power millions of travel experiences worldwide. The engineer will lead design and delivery of critical, large-scale travel workloads, solve complex technical problems, evolve system architecture, and improve engineering standards within a collaborative environment. The position is based in Seattle, WA, and requires employees to be in-office at least three days a week.

Requirements

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.

Nice To Haves

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.

Responsibilities

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.