Director of Engineering

Description :

Role : Director of Engineering Hotels Platform

Marketplace Systems Ranking Pricing Supply Platform

The Problem Space :

Hotels is not a listings platform. It is a living marketplace. At any given second, hundreds of thousands of properties are competing for placement on a screen.

Prices are dynamic, inventory is finite, and the window between intent and booking is measured in seconds.

The system must simultaneously solve supply aggregation, real-time pricing, personalized ranking, and transactional integrity at national scale.

- Millions of properties dynamic pricing real-time inventory signals

- Multi-supplier aggregation : OTA contracts, direct connects, B2B wholesale

- Ranking must balance relevance, conversion probability, and commercial objectives

- Every mismatch between displayed price and booked price is a trust failure

We are rebuilding Hotels as an AI-native, supply-intelligent marketplace one that understands demand signals, personalizes results at depth, and prices dynamically without sacrificing integrity.

What You Will Own :

Supply & Aggregation Layer :

- Multi-source hotel inventory aggregation - OTAs, direct APIs, XML feeds, and proprietary supply

- Real-time availability and pricing sync across thousands of suppliers

- Rate parity monitoring, supplier reconciliation, and contract enforcement logic

Pricing & Yield Engine :

- Dynamic rate computation across room types, date ranges, and fare classes

- Promotional and discount logic - coupon stacking, loyalty pricing, B2B negotiated rates

- Price integrity systems - ensuring the displayed price is always the bookable price

Search & Ranking :

- High-throughput property search with geo, amenity, and availability filtering

- ML-powered ranking models - blending relevance, conversion signals, and revenue optimization

- Personalization layer - surfacing the right property for the right traveler at the right moment

Booking & Post-Booking :

- Transactional booking systems - voucher generation, confirmation, and supplier push

- Modification, cancellation, and refund flows - navigating complex supplier policies programmatically

AI-First Marketplace Intelligence :

- LLM-powered property discovery - natural language search and contextual recommendations

- Demand forecasting and dynamic pricing intelligence

- AI-driven review synthesis and trust signal extraction

- Agentic complaint resolution and post-booking support automation

Core Engineering Challenges :

- Supply Quality vs. Breadth - more suppliers means more pricing noise; quality gates matter

- Ranking Fairness vs. Monetization - ranking must serve the user first, or conversion collapses

- Cache Freshness vs. Availability - stale inventory causes failed bookings at checkout

- Personalization Depth vs. Cold-Start - new users need great results without history

Key Responsibilities :

- Design and evolve the end-to-end Hotels platform architecture supply to post-booking

- Own ranking and pricing systems that directly drive GMV and conversion

- Lead supplier integration strategy - prioritizing reliability, data quality, and commercial alignment

- Partner with Revenue, Supply, and Product teams to translate marketplace economics into systems

- Build and lead teams of 1530+ engineers across platform and product verticals

Technology Stack :

- Backend : Java/Kotlin/Go

- Search & Ranking : Elasticsearch ML Feature Stores

- Data : Redis Kafka DynamoDB Aerospike

- Cloud : AWS (EKS, S3, EC2)

- Observability : Prometheus Grafana OpenTelemetry

Who You Are :

- 10 - 16 years in backend/distributed systems; experience in Marketplace, OTA, or Supply Chain platforms

- Deep understanding of supply-demand dynamics, ranking systems, and pricing mechanics

- Track record of leading large engineering teams in high-growth, high-scale environments

- Tier-I institute background strongly preferred (IIT / IIIT / NIT / IISC / BITS - CSE/ISE)

Why This Matters :

- Build the supply intelligence layer that powers hotel discovery for 100M+ travelers

- Design a marketplace that is fair, fast, and commercially intelligent

- Define AI-native hospitality commerce from the ground up