Senior Software Engineer, Backend

**ResortPass** Senior Software Engineer, Backend; $190,000–$225,000 (flex to $225K ceiling for standout candidates, base ceiling is $210K) plus equity; New York (On-site)

**About Company** ResortPass is redefining what it means to be a hotel guest by unlocking premium hotels (Ritz-Carlton, Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Four Seasons, Fairmont, IHG) and resorts for day access, pools, beaches, spas, wellness, without an overnight stay. Category leader with real scale: 5M+ customers served, 250K monthly users, 800K app installs last year, 2,500+ hotel partners, and hundreds of millions generated for partners. Approaching profitability with a lean team, outsized ownership for engineers joining now. Backed by CRV, Declaration, Brian Kelly (The Points Guy), WME, FJ Labs, and more.

**About the Role** We're hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to build ResortPass's external booking API from scratch, a greenfield platform that distribution partners (OTAs, travel aggregators, AI travel agents) will use to search, book, and manage inventory. This is the company's new distribution layer, purpose-built for correctness, concurrency, and partner-grade reliability across the entire booking lifecycle. The backend stack is Ruby on Rails, Postgres, AWS, with Redis, Kafka, and OpenSearch. Priority #1 hire for the engineering team, and the team moves fast for the right candidate (one recent hire completed the full interview process in a week).

**Responsibilities** - Design and build the external booking API for distribution partners (availability, pricing, reservation, modification, cancellation). - Own correctness-critical transaction flows, ensure booking, payment, and inventory operations are atomic, idempotent, and resilient under concurrent load. - Define API contracts (versioning, authentication, rate limiting, error handling) for external partner consumption. - Partner with product and business teams on partner integration requirements and launch timelines. - Instrument services for observability (Datadog): latency, error rates, throughput, and business-critical alerts. - Contribute to platform reliability (Redis caching, Kafka event streaming, OpenSearch indexing) across the booking domain.

**Required Skills** A. 6+ years building production backend systems at scale. B. Strong CS fundamentals from a strong degree program. Near-hard requirement, this is the second thing the hiring manager screens for after company pedigree, and candidates without one face a real uphill climb even when everything else is strong. C. Deep experience with correctness-critical transactional systems (payments, booking, inventory, or similar domains where data integrity is non-negotiable). D. Strong API design skills, has built and maintained external-facing APIs consumed by third-party partners or customers. E. Solid understanding of concurrency, consistency, and failure handling in distributed systems. F. High engineering bar: testing discipline, observability mindset, maintainable code.

**Bonus Skills** - Backend: Ruby on Rails, Node.js - Data: Postgres, Redis, Kafka, OpenSearch - Infra/Obs: AWS, Datadog - Experience with marketplace/booking systems or partner integrations

**Compensation & Equity** - Base: $190K–$210K standard band, flexes to $225K ceiling for the right candidate (background/experience dependent). $230K is outside their range. - Equity: $35K baseline in shares, negotiable upward for candidates from Meta/Snap/Bloomberg/Capital One-caliber backgrounds who want more ownership. - No performance-based bonus. - Clear internal promotion path: strong performers can move into team lead/EM roles as the org grows, hiring manager prefers promoting from within over external EM hires.

**Benefits** - Health, dental, and vision coverage, with ResortPass contributing to monthly premiums - Stock options - 401(k) plan - Unlimited paid time off - Paid parental leave - Annual ResortPass credit for pools, beaches, spas, and other experiences

**Logistical Info** - Location: New York (120 Fifth Avenue, Floor 7, NY 10011, Union Square/Flatiron), in-person 4 days/week Mon–Thu, 9:30 AM–5:30 PM - Number of openings: 2 - **Other:** Visa: Not standard, possible exception for exceptional candidates. Relocation: Not available.

**Ideal Background** Keep this simple, per the hiring manager's own framing, this is not an 85-bullet-point wishlist: - **Company pedigree (priority #1):** Big tech (Google, Meta, Snap, Bloomberg, Capital One) is the strong preference, since most recent hires including the hiring manager himself came from big tech. Well-known startups (Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash) are also acceptable. - **CS degree from a strong school (priority #2, near-gate):** Candidates without one can still get a yes but need real convincing. Don't spend this convincing budget on a weak pedigree candidate too. - **Mindset fit:** Must be genuinely open to a startup environment after a big-tech background, not just tolerating it. The team explicitly screens for this and has had strong success with candidates making that transition. - Rails experience not required, engineering quality matters most. Open to strong backend engineers from any language background (Go, Python, Java, etc.) who learn Rails on the job. **Candidates may code in the language of their choice during live coding rounds, not just Ruby.** - Experience with booking/marketplace/payments systems a strong plus. - Target distribution partners: Amex, Chase, Capital One, Bilt, GetYourGuide, TripAdvisor, early conversations. Use these names to contextualize the role for candidates without sharing the specific partners. - Calibration: Recently hired a strong senior eng (linkedin.com/in/reddyvis), use as calibration for the bar they're setting. - Screening Questions: 1. "Our process includes a live coding round in JS/TS. Are you comfortable with that today, and when did you last do live coding?" — Want: clear yes, recent experience, no hedging. 2. "In the last 2–4 weeks, what's the most complex code you personally implemented end-to-end?" — Want: concrete technical details, tradeoffs, validation. 3. "Tell me about the last tricky bug you debugged in production. How did you narrow it down and prevent regressions?" — Want: structured thinking, verification, prevention steps.

**Green Flags** - Thrived at high-bar org, hungry for more ownership at smaller scale. - Eagerness and drive for fast-paced startup environment. - Can clearly articulate recent hands-on coding work (not just managing/reviewing). - Has built systems where correctness matters: payments, financial, booking, inventory. - Strong product sense, thinks about partner experience, API usability, business impact.

**Red Flags** - Cannot pass live coding round (#1 drop-off, not esoteric, just translating requirements to a working function). - Slow-moving or doesn't thrive in startup pace. - Slower-moving enterprise background OK only with clear startup drive. - No experience with transactional/correctness-critical systems. - Contractors at staffing firms who are placed at big companies: instant no, company-wide rule, don't submit.

**Interview Process** Note: process length is not the deterrent it looks like. The hiring manager has been explicit that a longer process is fine as long as feedback lands fast at each stage, that's the actual lever, not cutting steps. Squad should push for turnaround speed at each milestone rather than expecting the step count to shrink. 1. Recruiter Screen 2. Virtual DS coding, 45 mins 3. Virtual live coding with AI tools (candidates may use Copilot, ChatGPT, etc.), 1 hour 4. Onsite Code review, 30 mins 5. Onsite System design, 1 hour 6. Onsite Hiring Manager screen, 30 mins 7. Onsite Meet VP of Tech, 30 mins