Principal Software Development Engineer - Loyalty

In this role, you will lead the technical strategy and architecture for the AI-empowered Loyalty charter – designing and delivering next‑generation, intelligent engagement experiences powered by modern AI and agentic systems. You will drive system design across multiple distributed engineering teams, partnering closely with Product, Data Science, and platform leaders to build scalable, reliable, and innovative solutions. This role requires deep hands‑on technical leadership, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to influence across teams without direct authority.

• Lead the architectural vision, design, and delivery of complex software solutions across multiple technical domains to enable AI powered loyalty offers and more.
• Drive system design, API development, and data modeling to ensure secure, maintainable, and high‑performing platforms.
• Guide and mentor engineering teams, fostering technical excellence and innovation across projects and domains.
• Safely integrate and operate AI/ML‑enabled solutions that improve outcomes, championing best practices in responsible AI deployment.
• Optimize operational excellence by implementing robust software development practices and scalable engineering processes.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional partners to deliver resilient, business‑aligned technology solutions and support continuous improvement.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field; or equivalent related professional experience.
• 12+ years of relevant professional experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in large‑scale system architecture, technical decision making, and delivery of complex multi‑domain solutions.
• Hands‑on experience designing, building, and shipping AI‑powered products using LLMs in production environments.
• Experience architecting agentic systems (multi‑step reasoning, tool use, orchestration frameworks, memory, evaluation loops).
• Experience integrating AI systems into scalable, high‑availability platforms with real‑time decisioning requirements.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems design, APIs, event‑driven architectures, and scalable backend systems.
• Experience building personalization, experimentation, recommendation, loyalty, or growth platforms at scale.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; able to articulate complex AI and architectural concepts clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Builds alignment across teams without formal authority.

• Experience leading architectural transformation and modernization initiatives for large, distributed systems.
• Experience in loyalty, personalization, offers, growth platforms, fintech, or consumer‑scale products is strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of modern AI system design patterns including RAG, embeddings, vector search, prompt orchestration, model evaluation, and observability.
• Expertise in full stack engineering with proven ability to operate across multiple technical domains and platforms.
• Track record of championing data‑driven decision making and operational excellence for mission‑critical systems.
• Deep understanding of safely scaling AI/ML‑enabled solutions, including risk mitigation and ethical considerations.
• Strong judgment in making trade‑offs between innovation, speed, scalability, and reliability.

The total cash range for this position in San Jose is $ to $. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.

Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This employer participates in E‑Verify.