Principal Software Engineer (Experiences)

Remote from: Poland
Annual salary: Undisclosed
Salary information is not provided for this position. Check our Salary Directory to estimate the average compensation for similar roles.
Department: Software Engineering
Employment type: Full Time,
Job posted: 17 May 2026
Apply before: 17 Jun 2026
Experience level: Senior
Views / Applies: 27 / 9

The world's largest travel platform.

Internet
2000

AI Summary

Tripadvisor is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join their Customer Support Engineering team in Cracow, Poland. The role involves driving the design and architecture of complex, scalable systems, conducting design reviews, and leading improvements in operational maturity. Candidates need 10+ years of commercial software development experience, expertise in cloud platforms (AWS or Azure), and proficiency in Java, Python, or Scala. The position focuses on building scalable distributed systems and collaborating with cross-functional teams.

Job Complexity

Easy Hard

AI Insight Principal Engineer roles require deep technical expertise, leadership, and strategic vision, making them highly challenging. The 10+ years experience requirement and need to drive architecture across teams contribute to the difficulty level of 4.

Salary Analysis

AI Insight The salary for this role is not specified, but based on market data for a Principal Software Engineer in the US, the median is around $220,000. The range typically spans $150,000 to $300,000 depending on location and company. This role is based in Poland, so local compensation may differ, but the US market benchmark is provided for reference.

Key Skills

Principal Engineer Software Architecture Distributed Systems AWS Java Python Scala SQL NoSQL Cloud Computing

Cover Letter Sample

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am writing to express my strong interest in the Principal Software Engineer position at Tripadvisor. With over 10 years of experience in commercial software development and a proven track record of designing scalable distributed systems, I am confident in my ability to drive the architecture and technical strategy for your Customer Support Engineering team.

I have extensive experience with AWS and Java, Python, and Scala, and I have successfully led cross-functional teams to deliver complex projects on time. My expertise in operational maturity and troubleshooting production issues aligns perfectly with the responsibilities outlined in the job description.

I am particularly drawn to Tripadvisor's mission of connecting people to experiences worth sharing and would be thrilled to contribute to a platform that serves millions of travelers worldwide.

Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how my skills and experience can benefit Tripadvisor.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Possible Interview Questions

Can you describe a time when you designed a scalable distributed system from conception to production? What were the key challenges and how did you overcome them?

I led the design of a microservices-based platform for a large e-commerce company. Key challenges included ensuring data consistency across services and handling high traffic loads. We implemented event-driven architecture with Kafka for async communication and used Kubernetes for auto-scaling. We also employed circuit breakers and retries to handle failures gracefully.

How do you approach conducting design reviews at the engineering pillar level? Can you give an example?

I start by reviewing the design document for clarity, completeness, and alignment with architectural principles. I then facilitate a review session where team members can ask questions and provide feedback. For example, I once reviewed a design for a new payment service; I identified potential bottlenecks in the database schema and suggested using a NoSQL store for better scalability.

Describe your experience with improving operational maturity for a platform. What specific practices did you promote?

I implemented comprehensive monitoring and alerting using Prometheus and Grafana, established SLIs and SLOs, and promoted a culture of blameless postmortems. I also introduced chaos engineering practices to test system resilience. This led to a 40% reduction in incident response time and improved system reliability.

How do you partner with Product Managers and Engineering Managers to establish technical delivery milestones?

I work with PMs to understand business priorities and with EMs to assess team capacity. We break down initiatives into epics and user stories, and I provide technical estimates for each. We then define milestones based on dependencies and risk. For example, for a new feature rollout, we set milestones for API design, backend implementation, and integration testing.

Can you give an example of how you communicated a complex technical concept to a non-technical stakeholder?

I once explained the need for migrating from a monolithic to a microservices architecture to a VP of Product. I used an analogy of a busy kitchen: the monolith is like one chef doing everything, while microservices are specialized chefs. I highlighted benefits like faster feature delivery and easier scaling, and used simple visuals to show the current bottlenecks and future state.

About Tripadvisor

The Tripadvisor Group connects people to experiences worth sharing, and aims to be the world’s most trusted source for travel and experiences. We leverage our brands, technology, and capabilities to connect our global audience with partners through rich content, travel guidance, and two-sided marketplaces for experiences, accommodations, restaurants, and other travel categories. The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIP), include a portfolio of travel brands and businesses, including Tripadvisor, Viator, and TheFork.

The Tripadvisor Experiences Engineering team is distributed across Europe and is responsible for the platform, mobile apps and all their supporting infrastructure. We run the systems that help operators build their businesses and those which enable third parties to utilise our inventory. We provide the tools which help our customer services team provide world class service to travellers and operators internationally.

We are hiring an experienced and talented Principal Software Engineer to join our growing Customer Support Engineering team.

This is a role based in Cracow, Poland on a permanent contract of employment/Umowa o pracę.

What you’ll do:

Drive the design and architecture of complex, scalable systems that underpin our technology solutions. Capable of designing long-lasting systems to solve complex problems (including scalability, reliability, consistency and quality) often across an engineering pillar.
Conduct design reviews at both the engineering pillar level and across the broader engineering organization.
Leads generalisable improvements in operational maturity for his platform and promotes best practices with other engineers when it comes to operations.
Work closely with engineering managers, other principal and senior principal engineers to drive technology strategy and roadmap that aligns to the wider organisation vision.
Partners with Product Manager(s) and Engineering Manager(s) to establish clear technical delivery milestones for key initiatives and then helps to drive delivery within the agreed scope, quality and on time.
Build trusted leadership by being regarded as a go-to person across a wide number of technologies, practices, and tools used in an engineering pillar.
Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders to ensure alignment on project goals, commitments, and timelines.

Skills & Experience:

10+ years of experience in commercial software development.
Demonstrated excellence in working with cross functional teams in fast-paced environments, both in terms of technical leadership and cross team collaboration.
Excellent command of tools and expertise for troubleshooting production issues.
Experience around building scalable and distributed software systems, from conception to production.
Experience of software architecture, design principles and engineering best practices.
Experience with AWS or Azure cloud platforms, object-oriented programming languages such as Java, Python, or Scala, and working with both SQL and NoSQL databases.
Exposure to the data engineering ecosystem will be a huge plus.

Our Cultural Pillars:

Traveler first

We exist to create value for our customer, the traveler. We enable our suppliers and partners to unlock this value. Their collective behaviors and insights are what drives us.

Execution is our edge

We act fast, experiment, learn from failure, iterate, and improve the solutions of tomorrow across every aspect of our business. Our execution is agile, data-driven, prioritised, and built to scale. We assume no problem is someone else’s problem and finish what can be done today, knowing tomorrow will bring fresh challenges.

We succeed together

The best outcomes are driven by empathic, humble, and diverse subject matter experts working toward shared goals. We collaborate relentlessly, challenge assumptions, give actionable feedback, and set each other up for success through empowered teams with a clear charter. We transparently take ownership of our growth, individually and as a team. We celebrate the quality of our effort, our learnings, and our collective achievements.

We strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please make sure to reach out to your individual recruiter or our team at [email protected].

If you have any additional questions about careers at Tripadvisor you can email us at [email protected]. We have all the answers!

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