Sr. Product Engineer

Navan
London, United Kingdom
On-site

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for experienced backend engineers who architect scalable systems and lead cross-functional projects, with a focus on travel and fintech domains and a need for collaboration across teams in London.

Best fit for

  • Experienced backend engineers with a history of leading large-scale microservices projects in travel or fintech
    — “Proven track record of driving technical vision and leading the architecture of large, multi-team projects from inception through to successful production rollouts.”
  • Candidates with deep expertise in backend stacks and a strong grasp of distributed systems and observability
    — “Deep technical expertise in backend engineering stacks such as but not limited to Java, TypeScript/Node.js, Python, or Go or any VM based language, alongside a strong mastery of engineering fundamentals.”
  • Individuals who can balance immediate product delivery with long-term system scalability and reliability
    — “Product mindset with the ability to balance immediate product delivery with long-term technical health and scalability.”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in building fault-tolerant systems that handle global transaction volumes.
    — “Architect Core Backend Systems: Design, build, and scale high-performance, fault-tolerant microservices that process millions of travel and expense transactions globally.”
  • Demonstrate leadership in cross-functional projects with examples of architectural decisions and standards set.
    — “Lead Technical Initiatives: Drive complex, cross-functional engineering projects from conception to deployment, making critical architectural trade-offs and setting technical standards for the wider backend organization.”
  • Showcase mastery of systems observability and reliability practices for Tier 1 services.
    — “Exceptional skills in systems observability, and have SLO/SLIs thought through.”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Architected and scaled high-performance backend systems
  • Led complex cross-functional engineering projects
  • Built robust APIs and scalable data pipelines
Typical background
6+ years of software engineering experienceDeep technical expertise in backend engineering stacks

Skills & requirements

Required

Backend EngineeringMicroservicesAPI DesignDistributed SystemsEvent-driven ArchitectureSystem ObservabilityProduction Debugging

Preferred

AITravel PlatformsFintechPayment ProcessingComplex Financial Ledgers

Stack & domain

JavaTypescript/node.jsPythonGoReactAngularLeadershipCommunicationTravelFinanceHealthcare

About the role

Original posting from Navan

Navan is building the next generation of intelligent travel experiences, where loyalty, personalization, and AI agents help travelers make better decisions before, during, and after every trip. As a Senior Software Engineer, you’ll drive the technical vision, architecture, and execution for the highly available, new specialty Travel platform that unlocks new verticals to existing Navan business.

What You’ll Do:

Architect Core Backend Systems: Design, build, and scale high-performance, fault-tolerant microservices that process millions of travel and expense transactions globally.

Build Micro Front Ends: Design and Build, clean and neat User interfaces for our users.

Lead Technical Initiatives: Drive complex, cross-functional engineering projects from conception to deployment, making critical architectural trade-offs and setting technical standards for the wider backend organization.

Optimize Performance & Reliability: Build robust APIs, asynchronous event-driven architectures, and scalable data pipelines with a relentless focus on low latency, high availability, and operational excellence.

Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with product management, engineering leadership, data, and platform teams to translate ambiguous business requirements into cohesive, enterprise-grade technical solutions.

Raise the Engineering Bar: Champion maintainable code, thoughtful abstractions, and rigorous testing. Act as a force multiplier by mentoring engineers, leading architecture reviews, and fostering a culture of strong operational ownership.

What We’re Looking For:

6+ years of software engineering experience building and operating highly scalable, distributed production systems at an enterprise or global scale.

Deep technical expertise in backend engineering stacks such as but not limited to Java, TypeScript/Node.js, Python, or Go or any VM based language, alongside a strong mastery of engineering fundamentals.

Exposure to Front End technologies such as React or Angular.

Extensive hands-on experience designing microservices, complex APIs, event-driven workflows, and working with distributed systems and databases.

Proven track record of driving technical vision and leading the architecture of large, multi-team projects from inception through to successful production rollouts.

Exceptional skills in systems observability, and have SLO/SLIs thought through. 

Experience with production debugging, and ensuring the reliability of critical Tier 1 services.

Product mindset with the ability to balance immediate product delivery with long-term technical health and scalability.

Experience with travel platforms, fintech, payment processing, or complex financial ledgers is a bonus.

Navan uses AI-assisted Automated Employment Decision Tool (Metaview) to assist with evaluating resumes against job qualifications for this role. All final decisions are made by human recruiters and hiring managers. 

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Source: Navan careers

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