Associate Software Engineer, KAYAK
$95-105k
3+ days a week in office (Cambridge or Concord, MA)
Travel search engine
Be an early applicant
Travel search engine
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$95-105k
3+ days a week in office (Cambridge or Concord, MA)
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help millions of travelers around the globe make confident travel decisions.
Role
Who you are
- A degree or equivalent practical experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field — or a portfolio of work that demonstrates the same foundational skills
- Foundational proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with exposure to TypeScript preferred
- Hands-on experience with React or a comparable modern UI framework
- Familiarity with version control using Git and comfort contributing to a shared, collaborative codebase
- An ability to work with AI coding tools to improve development velocity and code quality, in line with the team's engineering practices
- Clear communication skills, a collaborative mindset, and openness to giving and receiving feedback through code reviews and agile ceremonies
- The capacity to thrive in a hybrid working model, including the ability to attend the Cambridge or Concord office at least 3 days per week
What the job involves
- We're looking for a curious, collaborative Associate Front End Software Engineer to join our Cars Meta UI team — the group responsible for the Cars search experience used by millions of travelers every day. This is a role where you'll grow quickly, contribute meaningfully from day one, and be supported by a team that values learning, quality, and working well together
- Deliver well-scoped front-end features for KAYAK's Cars search vertical that reach millions of travelers daily, working alongside senior engineers who will support your growth
- Implement clean, maintainable React and TypeScript code that meets the team's quality standards
- Collaborate with product managers, designers, and backend engineers to translate clearly defined requirements into polished, user-facing experiences across web and mobile
- Participate in code reviews — both receiving and providing constructive feedback
- Write unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to ensure reliability and prevent regressions
- Leverage AI coding tools (such as Claude Code) to improve your development velocity and code quality, in line with the team's engineering practices
- Engage actively in agile ceremonies — sprint planning, standups, and retrospectives — contributing ideas and flagging blockers to keep delivery on track
Our take
KAYAK is a travel agency and metasearch engine owned and operated by Booking Holdings. KAYAK processes over 6 billion queries across its platforms each year for travel information - as one of the world’s leading travel search engines, KAYAK searches other sites to show travellers the information they need to find the right flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages. It offers a variety of tools and features such as KAYAK trips, explore, and price forecast.
There’s been speculation over the years about online travel companies getting into the hotel business, and KAYAK is no exception. The company is expanding its hospitality offerings beyond its traditional hotel referral and booking services, but despite speculation through the 2020s, has stopped short of opening hotels under its own brand, preferring to partner with preexisting companies on their hotel tech.
Since being acquired by Booking Holdings, the global leader in online travel, in 2013, KAYAK has continued to expand and innovate, enhancing the travel experience for users all around the world. And now KAYAK manages a portfolio of metasearch brands including SWOODOO, checkfelix, momondo, Cheapflights, Mundi and HotelsCombined. With the aim to make it easier for everyone to experience the world - it now operates sites in more than 70 countries and territories.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
6% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company benefits
- Work flexibly: Our global flexible work policy lets our teams decide if they head into one of our offices or work from anywhere else
- Team-wide time off: Most of our team disconnects at the same time each year to recharge and reconnect
- Global volunteer week: Take VTO (Volunteer Time Off) to support the organizations and charitable efforts you believe in
- Wellness: We take care of each other - providing opportunities and spaces to live that work-life balance
- Resource groups: Our five ERGs are employee-led groups for underrepresented communities and their allies
- Career growth: We provide opportunities for our team to develop their skills – or learn new ones – on their own terms
Company HQ
East Side of Stamford, Stamford, CT
Leadership
Steve Hafner
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously Board Member of Trulia, Blade and SeatGeek and currently an Executive at OpenTable.
Salary benchmarks
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