Data Engineer, Content Intelligence at Booking.com

At Booking.com, we rely on data to guide our choices. Technology fuels everything we do, and innovation is part of our DNA. But we’re more than just numbers, code, or experiments. We’re about the excitement of arriving in a new destination. The anticipation of what the next day will bring. The people you meet. The adventures you embark on. The places you explore. And the unforgettable moments you create. Through our technology, partners, and team, we help people discover the world with ease.

Leadership/Team Quote:

This position is with the Content Intelligence team, part of the Central Tech division at Booking.com.

The Content Intelligence team leads the way in Generative AI innovation, developing solutions for travel chatbots, automated text generation, summarization tools, Q&A systems, and advanced free-text search. Additionally, the team is constructing a state-of-the-art platform that handles millions of images and text inputs daily, enhancing them with machine learning (ML). These enriched datasets improve customer experiences—like showcasing the most relevant photos and reviews as travelers plan and book their trips.

Role Description:

As a Data Engineer, you’ll work alongside skilled engineers and data scientists to enhance our platform and deliver outstanding user experiences. Your main focus will be on data engineering—ensuring smooth, high-quality data flow to train and refine content models, including GenAI foundation models, supervised fine-tuning, and more.

You’ll collaborate with teams across the company to maintain top-tier data availability from ML platforms, supporting decision-making in every department. With access to petabytes of data through MySQL, Snowflake, Cassandra, S3, and other systems, your challenge will be to optimize this data for business decisions, ML model training, monitoring, and product improvements.

Key Job Responsibilities and Duties:

• Quickly develop scalable, flexible, and high-performance data pipelines.
• Work with massive text datasets to train GenAI foundation models.
• Troubleshoot data and pipeline issues, prioritizing based on customer impact.
• Take end-to-end ownership of data quality in core datasets and pipelines.
• Experiment with new tools and technologies to meet performance, scalability, and data quality needs.
• Build tools that enhance Data Quality across the company, especially for ML scientists.
• Provide self-service tools to help analysts discover data, assess quality, explore usage, and connect with experts.
• Bridge communication between technical and non-technical teams.
• Drive impactful and innovative engineering solutions.
• Grow skills through hands-on projects, hackathons, conferences, and community involvement.
• Work with cross-functional teams (product managers, data scientists, analysts) to translate business needs into ML solutions. Mentor junior team members.

Qualifications & Skills:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, or a related field.
• At least 3 years as a Data Engineer or similar role, with a track record of delivering ML/Data solutions.
• Experience building production data pipelines in the cloud, setting up data lakes and serverless solutions.
• Hands-on with schema design, data modeling, and supporting ML production solutions.
• Knowledge of system design fundamentals (load balancing, databases, caching, NoSQL, etc.).
• Strong Python and Java programming skills.
• Experience with big data frameworks like PySpark, Apache Flink, Snowflake, or similar.
• Familiarity with MySQL, Cassandra, DynamoDB, or other relational/NoSQL databases.
• Background in Data Warehousing and ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Experience processing large-scale language models (GPT, BERT, etc.)—a plus.
• Proficiency in data manipulation, analysis, and visualization (NumPy, pandas, matplotlib)—a plus.
• Knowledge of A/B testing, experimental design, and ML evaluation metrics—a plus.
• Worked on high-impact products with a large user base—a plus.
• Fluent in English (written and spoken).

Benefits & Perks – Global Impact, Personal Relevance:

Booking.com’s Total Rewards go beyond salary. We provide competitive compensation, benefits, and unique perks, including:

• Generous paid leave (parental, grandparental, bereavement, and care leave).
• Hybrid work model with flexibility + up to 20 days per year working abroad (home country).
• Exclusive travel discounts (up to €1400/year), Genius Level 3 status, and wallet credit.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Booking.com:

DEI has been central to our culture from the start. Our team includes 140+ nationalities, diverse backgrounds, genders, and orientations.

As our Chief People Officer, Paulo Pisano, says:

“At Booking.com, our people’s diversity doesn’t just build a great workplace—it creates a more inclusive travel experience for all. Inclusion drives everything we do. This is where you can make a real impact in tech and travel.”

We support colleagues with disabilities by providing necessary adjustments and tools for hiring, job performance, and benefits access.

Application Process:

“Let’s go places together: How we Hire”

Note: This role does not include relocation assistance.

Booking.com is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all races, colors, religions, genders, gender identities, sexual orientations, national origins, genetic backgrounds, disabilities, ages, or veteran statuses. We go beyond traditional equality to foster an environment where everyone can thrive.