Fullstack Software Engineer II, Flights

Location: New York, NY

Department: Engineering

Navan is reinventing corporate travel and expense management for millions of users worldwide. As a Software Engineer II on the Flights team, reporting to the Senior Engineering Manager of Flights Platform, you will build and scale the mission-critical engine that powers how users search, book, pay for, and expense flight itineraries in seconds.

The Flights domain sits at the core of Navan’s platform, dealing with complex global distribution systems, high-throughput search queries, and real-time transaction processing across the globe. We operate at scale, value engineering craftsmanship, and move fast. If you want to solve complex distributed systems problems, ship high-availability backend services, and directly impact the travel experience of global users daily, this role is for you.

What You’ll Do:

• Architect & Scale Core Services: Design, build, and maintain high-throughput, low-latency APIs and backend microservices that handle complex flight search, booking, and payment workflows globally.
• Ship End-to-End Features: Own features across the entire lifecycle—from initial technical architecture and data modeling to writing clean production code, deploying, and monitoring in production.
• Drive System Resiliency & Quality: Build fault-tolerant systems with robust automated testing, observability, alerting, and telemetry to ensure maximum uptime for mission-critical travel services.
• Collaborate & Influence Product: Partner directly with Product Managers, Designers, and Engineering Leads to translate complex business and domain requirements into elegant, scalable technical solutions.
• Elevate Developer Craftsmanship: Participate in code reviews, contribute to shared frameworks, and champion engineering best practices that boost team velocity, developer productivity, and platform stability.
• Innovate & Learn: Continuously evaluate new technologies, frameworks, and tools to modernize our backend stack and refine our architecture.

What We're Looking For:

• Experience: 3–5 years of professional backend software development experience, with a proven track record of shipping production-grade applications.
• Core Fundamentals: Strong computer science foundations (data structures, algorithms, object-oriented design) and clean API design principles.
• End-to-End Ownership: A builder mindset that takes pride in high-quality code, comprehensive test coverage, robust monitoring, and technical documentation.
• Pragmatic Problem-Solver: Ability to break down complex domain problems into modular, maintainable code in a fast-moving, high-growth environment.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Clear, proactive communication skills to collaborate effectively with cross-functional partners and explain technical trade-offs to stakeholders.
• Core Language & Frameworks: Proficiency in Java and hands-on experience with modern frameworks like Spring / Spring Boot and Hibernate/ORMs.
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Experience building and deploying cloud-native applications on AWS using microservice architectures.
• Distributed Systems: Familiarity with event-driven architectures, caching strategies, relational databases, and handling distributed state.
• Domain Bonus: Prior experience working on consumer-facing products, high-availability transactional platforms, or travel tech integrations is a plus.