Our vision is to be the world’s leading social travel platform.
We are on a mission to help travellers find their people and create unforgettable moments together. Connections matter as much as destinations, and we are building a global ecosystem to enable them.
Since the launch of our social network in the hostelling category in 2022, Hostelworld has experienced transformational growth. We have successfully welcomed over 2.6 million social members to our platform, proving the strong demand for connection in travel. This vibrant community is not just booking trips; they are actively engaging, co-creating, and becoming our most powerful brand advocates. The platform is rich with user-generated content, including a rapidly growing volume of customer testimonials and authentic travel stories that provide powerful social proof.
The growth in engagement is remarkable: the number of messages sent between travellers has grown significantly faster than the number of trips booked by social members, demonstrating the deep social utility of our platform. This momentum is reflected in our robust financial health, underscored by a strong balance sheet powered by an asset-light, cash-generative business model.
We are not just another Online Travel Agent (OTA); we have created a new category of travel altogether: Social Travel. Our singular focus on helping travellers find people to hang out with is the foundation of our strategy. It has allowed us to build a powerful and defensible market position, which attracts highly valuable customers and shifts more of our business onto our mobile-native apps.
While our app and social features create a sticky user experience, our true competitive moat stems from the incredibly rich, proprietary data set generated by our social network. As our community grows, so does the value of this data, creating a compounding network effect that is nearly impossible to replicate. This "social flywheel" allows us to understand traveller behaviour, predict needs, and personalise experiences in ways that generalist OTAs cannot match. It is the engine that will power our long-term, differentiated growth and solidify our position as the sole player in the Social Travel category we created.
Our Culture
At Hostelworld, our culture is a direct reflection of our customers: adventurous, curious, and social. We have a shared love of travel that fuels our work and connects us on a deeper level. It’s a fast-paced environment that blends the agility and "scrappy" resourcefulness of a start-up with the experience and ambition of a global, publicly listed company.
We are a team of pragmatic optimists who are data-obsessed and results-driven. We value a ‘test and learn’ mindset, encouraging experimentation and empowering our teams to take calculated risks. We believe in doing the right thing—for our customers, our partners, and each other. We foster a supportive and collaborative atmosphere where diverse perspectives are celebrated, and where every team member has the opportunity to make a significant impact on our journey. We embrace the journey, not just the destination, and we seek leaders who will thrive in a dynamic environment and inspire their teams to do the same.
This role is based in Portugal. We have an office hub in Porto available for those who prefer a hybrid model where you can spend time with colleagues in-person. You will need to be able to commute to our office hub as required from time to time.
The role involves joining a team containing a mixture of Hostelworld Devs and Contractors to deliver new product features in the Social domain of our system. You’ll work alongside Hostelworld Principal Engineers, Team Leads and Product Managers to ensure that software features are delivered to Hostelworld’s Definition of Done (DoD) in a timely manner. We’ll deliver APIs using Node.js Microservices hosted in GCP and interacting with MongoDB databases.
Work independently to bring features through all stages of the SDLC; From refinement, through development, testing and deployment to post release monitoring in a timely and predictable manner
Work alongside our Community of Practice Architecture group to Contribute to the evolution of the overall product/system architecture
Understand and follow technical and product requirements as set out by Team Leads, Product Managers and Principal Engineers
Understand, debug, troubleshoot and fix issues across our tech stack
Develop clean and maintainable code that follows our Definition of Done
Develops solutions that meet the SREs SLOs
Develop Alerts to Monitor production code and knowledge and fix issues as they alert (during working hours)
Deliver Unit, Component test, Stress, Performance and Soak tests
Mentor more junior members of your team in technical and procedural aspects of the role
Experience & Qualifications:
Minimum 5+ years professional development experience in Node, JS, Typescript or similar.
Strong understanding of design patterns (particularly within the Microservice Architecture)
Strong understanding of Clean Code and Clean Architecture Principles
Experience developing and maintaining cloud native applications on GCP (or similar)
Experience using developing Event Driving Systems
Experience with SQL and NoSQL
Experience working in a Scrum team
Able to write and understand User Stories and Test Plans in Gherkin
Experience using API Gateways (we use Apigee)
Experience using developing Event Driving Systems
Implementing AI agents in the SDLC or Product is a bonus
Knowledge & Skills:
Excellent communication skills (proficient in both spoken and written English)
Experience working with remote teams
Ability to prioritise and meet deadlines
Demonstrate that you love learning and enjoy problem solving complex issues
Competitive salary & benefits
Enhanced annual leave plus 3 Wellbeing Days per year
Paid family leave (maternity, paternity, surrogacy & adoption)
Agile working (plus a Working from Abroad Policy!)
Support for your ongoing growth & development
Inclusive people policies (sickness, menopause, compassionate and fertility leave)
A chance to give back to your local community with 5 paid volunteering days
Grow others - We fundamentally believe that investing in growing others benefits everyone, whether it's helping them develop hard or soft skills. We want learning and growing to be part of our DNA to help makes us a better team, together.
Master it - We are obsessed with our area of expertise and enjoy developing our skills. We rarely take things at face value; we investigate, interrogate, and always look for ‘the why,’ and wherever possible, we use data to find the best solution.
Collaborate - We are in it together, for the tough stuff and the celebrations too. To achieve the best results, we need expertise from all areas of the organisation, and we wholeheartedly welcome diverse thinking.
Adapt - We work fluidly, adapting to new information and the evolving environment while staying committed to our goals. Innovation and experimentation fuel our projects and we’re never afraid to pivot.
Deliver - Our focus is always on the end result; we value outcomes over activity. We collaborate to deliver work at speed without dropping any of our other behaviours.
We believe in talented and diverse teams that reflect the diversity of our customers and the communities in which we operate. Everyone brings different perspectives and experiences. We lay out the above requirements to guide applicants to the experiences that we believe will allow you to be successful in the role. If you don’t meet them all, please consider applying if you think you can still perform the role as described.
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