Software Engineer II (For Independent Contractors)

Details

A Software Engineer II owns the execution of technical elements in the Booking.com technology stack, products, and processes. The role is responsible for implementing technical solutions based on business requirements, estimating effort and impact, and delivering high-quality work. The engineer understands that test automation quality is as important as production code quality and refactors both to enable sustainable development.

The role works with colleagues in other job roles to design, prioritize, and implement technical tasks. Depending on the business unit, work may cover product features, infrastructure automation, frameworks, tooling, or services. The role may require participation in an on-call rotation.

Responsibilities

Building Software Applications

• Build software applications using relevant development languages and appropriate systems, services, and tools.
• Write readable and reusable code using standard patterns and libraries.
• Refactor and simplify code by introducing design patterns when necessary.
• Ensure application quality by following standard testing techniques and methods aligned with the test strategy.
• Maintain data security, integrity, and quality by following company standards and best practices.

End-to-End System Ownership

• Own services end to end by monitoring application health and performance, setting relevant metrics, and responding to violations.
• Reduce business continuity risks and bus factor by applying modern practices and tools and writing documentation such as runbooks and OpDocs.
• Reduce risk and obtain customer feedback through continuous delivery and experimentation frameworks.
• Independently manage applications or services through deployment and production operations.

Technical Incident Management

• Address and resolve live production issues while mitigating customer impact within SLA.
• Improve system reliability through root cause analysis and long-term solutions.
• Contribute to postmortem processes and log live issues.

Architectural Guidance and Software Systems Design

• Advise product teams on technical solutions that meet functional, nonfunctional, and architectural requirements.
• Challenge application design rationale and provide context within the wider architectural landscape.
• Set direction for technical capabilities by evaluating target architecture improvements and aligning architectural designs and decisions.
• Evaluate architecture solutions based on cost, business requirements, technology requirements, and emerging technologies.
• Describe the implications of changing existing systems or adding new systems.
• Apply engineering techniques such as prototyping, spiking, and vendor evaluation.
• Design adaptable solutions that meet current business requirements and support future enhancements.

Critical Thinking and Continuous Improvement

• Identify patterns and underlying issues in complex situations using logical and analytical thinking.
• Objectively review and improve ideas, plans, solutions, processes, systems, and standards.
• Define and implement process improvements that enable business performance.
• Guide more junior team members in maintaining data security, integrity, and quality.

Communication

• Deliver clear, well-structured, and meaningful information using appropriate communication methods and language.
• Achieve mutually agreeable solutions through adaptability, clear communication, and active listening.
• Ask relevant follow-up questions to fully understand others’ input.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree.
• 3–5 years of relevant job knowledge.
• Proficiency in building software applications.
• Experience with end-to-end system ownership.
• Experience in software systems design.
• Familiarity with architectural guidance.
• Experience in technical incident management.
• Experience in technical leadership.
• Effective communication skills.
• Experience in continuous quality improvement.
• Proficient critical-thinking skills.

Communication Stakeholders

• Peers
• Product owners
• Team members

Communication Types

• Cooperation — Information
• Cooperation — Persuasion — Information
• Cooperation — Information