About KAYAK

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is the world’s leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We’re also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business.

As an employee of KAYAK, you will be part of a travel company that operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands, including momondo, Cheapflights and HotelsCombined, among others. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is at our core, and every employee has an opportunity to make their mark. Our focus is on building the best travel search engine to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.

About the Role

KAYAK is looking for a Data Engineer to build the trusted data foundation behind machine learning across the company.

You’ll partner with data scientists to understand their modelling needs and what the available data can (and can’t) support. You’ll transform large-scale raw data into production-ready datasets and build the scalable pipelines that make them dependable and reusable.

Working across Data Science, Data Engineering and Data Platform, you’ll help address data gaps and bring new machine learning use cases into production.

If you’re excited to shape how teams across KAYAK use data to build and scale machine learning, we’d love to hear from you.

Location: Berlin, Germany (three days per week in the office).

In This Role, You Will

• Data Science Collaboration: Partner with the Data Science teams and help translate modelling needs into dataset requirements. Collaborate with Data Engineering and Data Platform to extend foundational pipelines into ML-ready datasets.
• Data Pipeline Development: Design scalable and efficient dataset workflows and ensure pipeline reliability through validation, monitoring and alerting. Diagnose and resolve issues as they arise.
• Production-Ready Solutions: Deliver production-ready data solutions that enable machine learning applications and create real-world impact on user experience and key business metrics.
• Technical Strategy: Identify gaps and opportunities, contributing to technical decisions and roadmap priorities that strengthen the data foundation for current and future machine learning use cases.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work across Data Science, Engineering and Data Platform, communicating technical decisions, findings and trade-offs clearly and concisely to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Please Apply If You Have

• Strong Technical Foundations: Solid foundations in data engineering, software engineering and systems design, backed by a track record of building and operating reliable, large-scale data pipelines. Demonstrated capability matters more than academic credentials.
• Production Experience: Hands-on experience developing production data pipelines, with the ability to clearly explain the problems addressed, your specific contributions and the resulting impact.
• Ownership & Systems Thinking: Sound judgement and the ability to navigate technical, reliability, cost and risk trade-offs while working independently and recognising when to seek guidance.
• AI-Assisted Workflows: Fluency with AI-assisted workflows, leveraging modern tools to improve productivity and quality while critically evaluating their outputs and limitations.
• Collaborative Mindset: Curiosity, humility and a commitment to continuous learning, sharing knowledge and improving together.

Bonus Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with technologies relevant to KAYAK’s stack, such as Kafka, Flink, Iceberg, Trino, AWS, Kubernetes, Airflow, Python, SQL and schema-based data contracts.
• Experience with feature stores or feature pipelines.
• Familiarity with Agile ways of working, such as sprint planning and team ceremonies.

Benefits & Perks

• Work from (Almost) Anywhere: Enjoy the flexibility to work from almost anywhere for up to 20 days per year.
• Focus on Mental Health & Wellbeing:
  • Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth.
  • Company-paid subscription to Headspace.
  • Company-wide week off each year, giving the whole team time to recharge and return without a pile-up of work.
  • No-meeting Fridays.
• Time Off & Giving Back:
  • Paid parental leave.
  • Paid volunteer time.
  • Six weeks of paid vacation, plus a day off for your birthday.
• Focus on Your Career Growth:
  • Development Dollars.
  • Leadership development opportunities.
  • Access to thousands of on-demand e-learning courses.
• Travel & Lifestyle Benefits:
  • Travel discounts.
  • Employee Resource Groups.
  • Free lunch two days per week.
  • Pension plan contributions.
  • Public transportation subsidies.
  • Bike leasing programme.
• Social & Office Life:
  • Monthly social events.
  • Thursday happy hours.
  • Sports teams.
  • An awesome office in Friedrichshain, Berlin.

Inclusion

At KAYAK, we want everyone to have the space to grow, share ideas and do great work.

That’s why we’re focused on hiring the best talent from all walks of life and experiences, supporting them well and making sure no one feels like they have to fit a mould to belong here.

Need any adjustments for the interview, application or on the job? No problem – just give us a heads-up. We’ve got you.