Senior Director of Engineering

Rocket Travel by Agoda is looking for a Senior Director of Engineering to join our growing Engineering team. In this role, you’ll work closely with our VP and SVP of Engineering to define and execute on the strategic direction of our platform teams. 

• Work with a group of intrinsically motivated people with a track record for building successful new businesses from scratch.
• Embody curiosity, being an owner, taking moonshots, and rising together. We live and build products by these values every day. 
• Own decisions and take action that can be implemented in a matter of days (or hours).
• Get inspired and encouraged to vacation faster, with an annual vacation stipend.
• Receive a competitive compensation package, including bonus, 401k with match, flexible vacation time, maternity and paternity benefits, health, and dental insurance.
  • Total Compensation is based on qualifications and experience .
    • The starting point for this salary is $232,000 with a competitive discretionary bonus. 
• Can have a flexible work schedule. We have great offices in Chicago’s West Loop and in NYC’s Empire State building, we have a hybrid team, and a flexible work environment
• Share your passion for travel with equally adventurous teammates. 
• Work within the largest online travel company in the world. Rocket Travel by Agoda creates B2C and B2B2C travel products and is part of Booking Holdings (BKNG). We have many worldwide partners and a diversified business. Despite the world’s current situation, Booking Holdings has been rated the healthiest company in travel, and Rocket itself is already seeing travel demand surpass pre-pandemic levels

• Assist the VP of Engineering to define and execute the strategic direction of our platform and launch teams . You see the bigger picture, you take ownership of your business and ensure your team delivers to the strategy. 
• Deliver integrated solutions working with engineering, product and other technology leaders across our diverse set of global teams.
• Track and Report project progress to the business leadership.
• Manage and coach engineering directors. Some directors will be very new to the role while others have experience. 
• Guide your leaders to deadlines across multiple projects. There will be short turnarounds for some projects, and longer engagements for others. You know how to help focus the teams. You know when to be hands on and when to step back and let your team take the reins.
• Continuously improve team processes, tooling and quality.  You can spot inefficiencies and problems. You will engage teams to address the root cause of issues on a continuous basis to drive success and engagement.

• You’ve worked with global teams. You have a minimum of 3-5 years of management experience and have proven successes leading at least 3 teams across multiple geographies. 
• You exhibit strong leadership and mentoring skills. You have directly managed multiple engineering directors with teams numbering more than 50 engineers across multiple time zones. You’ve coached on career growth, team resiliency, and overall performance management providing candid feedback as a means to growth. 
• You seek feedback. You have a growth mindset, are comfortable soliciting thoughts from others, and are curious to learn from a spectrum of perspectives. 
• You balance exploration with execution. Exploration and execution are both key to building innovative experiences. You understand when it’s time to explore and when it’s time to deliver.  
• You get architecture. You’ve been a driver in large and complex technical designs and planning. You know how to get to a solution balancing many different voices, opinions and needs.  
• You have experience devising cost benefit analysis of projects. You have had to justify and share with senior leaders the ROI of projects. 
• You’ve exposed inefficiencies and developed processes resulting in more than a 20% ROI on a $2m or greater budget. 
• You have experience in a highly agile DevOps culture and have guided the creation of agile CI/CD processes deploying more than 20 different applications to multiple environments for more than a year while maintaining 99% uptime.  
• Security and Privacy are foremost in your mind as you develop processes. You have implemented practices that support Security and Privacy by Design models in an effort to shift left. You can explain how regional and global laws such as GDPR, CCPA and PDP impact your business and your teams and what you have done to protect your business. 
• Executives proactively consult you for guidance on million-dollar decisions. You clearly communicate ideas, plans and progress with a sharp understanding of your audience.

Rocket Travel partners with loyalty programs around the world to make travel even more rewarding. Our customers can earn and redeem miles, points, and gift cards, or save big with exclusive discounts, for booking travel accommodations around the world, from global favorite brands to boutique bed and breakfasts. We also help our partners curate vacation excursion planning and car rental services, with a completely branded experience from the first search to check-out from their stay.

We attract customers from every corner of the globe with a user experience that's built in-house from ideation to finished product: our team includes front- and back-end developers, customer service, data analysts, designers, marketers, accountants, partnership sales, and managers. We have offices in Chicago, NYC, Bogota, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Cebu, as well as colleagues working remotely across four continents. Our global partnerships range from world-class airlines to international banks to large-scale shopping platforms. 

We began in 2013 as a start-up, were acquired by Bookings Holdings two quick years later, and we've been growing rapidly ever since. Rocket Travel is dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace where everyone has the opportunity to reach new heights in their career, and expand their knowledge working alongside talented, dedicated colleagues. We encourage all applicants with a touch of wanderlust to apply to our team, as we work toward helping our travelers reach the vacation of their dreams.

Note on general employment requirements

Candidates should be authorized to accept employment in the US from any employer, should be willing to start within three weeks of accepting an offer, and should be able to work the same daily working hours as our Chicago office.

A final word

If the idea of working within an environment that promotes accountability, curiosity, and community to build reward travel products sounds motivating to you, we would love to hear from you—even if you’re unable to meet 100% of the job requirements. We never expect people to have all of the answers, as long as they’re willing and able to learn and grow with us.