Senior Java Engineer – South Bank, QLD

At Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) our purpose is to 'open up the world for those who want to see'. Every day, we give people all around the world the opportunity to experience something amazing – travel!

We’re looking for a Senior Java Engineer to help us build and scale a travel platform relied on by some of Australia's largest corporate operators. This is not a full stack role; it's a deep backend engineering position for someone who genuinely enjoys the hard problems: complex, high availability systems that process high volume travel booking at scale.

You’ll be a key technical contributor on capabilities that matter, building the backend systems that give travel consultants and managers one consistent, reliable way of managing trips for our customers, rather than a patchwork of workarounds and exceptions. You won’t be maintaining someone else’s legacy code in isolation; you’ll be designing and building new capability from the ground up, including change and cancellation support, waitlist management, and deep policy engine integration, then owning it end to end in production. This is a chance to make decisions that stick: the architecture you choose, the standards you set, and the patterns you introduce will shape how the platform evolves for years to come.

Day to day:

• Core Backend Development
  • Design, build, and own complex backend services and APIs using Java (Spring Boot / Spring Framework), with a strong focus on reliability, performance, and correctness.
  • Deliver new modules including: change and cancellation processing, waitlist capability, and policy engine integration across the workforce travel platform.
  • Implement & consume RESTful APIs and SOAP/Web Services that integrate with airline GDS systems, internal booking engines, and third‑party workforce platforms.
• System Reliability & Observability
  • Ensure the platform maintains high uptime; this is a mission‑critical system for workforce travel operations; downtime has direct operational impact.
  • Instrument services with Datadog, including APM tracing, custom metrics, log correlation, and dashboard creation to provide full observability across the travel workflow stack.
  • Define and monitor SLOs/SLIs, respond to incidents, and lead post‑incident reviews to drive continuous reliability improvement.
  • Proactively identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, memory issues, and degradation patterns before they impact customers.
• Architecture & Technical Leadership
  • Lead technical design for new capabilities, producing clear architecture and API design documentation before implementation.
  • Conduct rigorous code reviews and hold the team to high standards for API design, exception handling, test coverage, and service contract quality.
  • Identify and reduce technical debt, particularly around legacy integration patterns, file‑based data exchange, and monolithic components.
  • Mentor and support junior and mid‑level engineers, particularly on Java best practices, Spring internals, and API design.
• DevOps & Delivery
  • Champion DevOps practices across the team: CI/CD pipeline ownership, automated testing (unit, integration, contract), and deployment hygiene.
  • Collaborate with platform and cloud engineering on Azure‑based infrastructure, ensuring services are containerised, scalable, and maintainable.
  • Work closely with product managers and business stakeholders to translate complex travel workflow requirements into clean, maintainable backend logic.
  • Participate actively in agile delivery processes, sprint planning, refinement, retrospectives and drive continuous improvement.

You’ll be perfect for the role if you have:

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience with deep expertise in Java (Java 11+, ideally Java 17 or 21).
• Proficient with AI coding tools (Claude, GitHub Copilot) and able to critically evaluate AI‑generated code in production contexts.
• Expert‑level knowledge of the Spring ecosystem: Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Data JPA, Spring Security, and Spring Integration.
• Strong track record designing and building complex REST APIs and Web Services (SOAP/WSDL); including versioning, contract design, and error handling at scale.
• Proven ability to instrument and operate production systems using Datadog — APM, dashboards, monitors, log pipelines, and AI‑powered anomaly detection and forecasting features.
• Experience with relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Sybase) including complex query optimisation and schema design.

Highly Regarded

• Experience in travel technology GDS systems (Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo), NDC, PNR management, travel platforms.
• Familiarity with API gateways, service mesh, microservices strategies.
• REST APIs, SOAP / Web Services (WSDL), JSON, XML.
• JUnit, Mockito, integration and contract testing.

What you will enjoy:

• Culture: you will be employed by an inclusive company that offers a team culture like no other in the industry - Flight Centre Travel Group Australia is proud to be a certified Great Place To Work® Australia New Zealand Pty Ltd.
• Our People: FCTG is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourage all suitably qualified applicants to apply, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People and people from racial, ethnic, or ethno-religious minority groups and people with disability.
• Development: Individualised Learning & Development pathway options. Access to 'LinkedIn Learning' for ongoing skills development: over 24,500 courses in over 20 languages.
• Exclusive Staff Discounts: Accessible via our employee-only portal with 350+ of Australia’s leading retailers, health and wellness discounts, financial planning advice, employee share plan and more.
• Travel Discounts: Including family and friends - flights, hotels, tours, cruises, travel insurance and more.
• Brightness of Future: Career opportunities in a network of brands and businesses across the globe - we promote from within.
• Corporate Health Discounts: Access exclusive discounts on health insurance plans for you and your family with our partner, BUPA, access to internal gym.
• Mental Health: Support and Employee Assistance Program for staff and family.
• Social: Regular awards nights, social team-building and industry events, with the opportunity to attend global conferences (Bangkok in 2026).
• Giving Back: Corporate Social Responsibility program supporting nominated charities through Workplace Giving, volunteering and fundraising; paid parental and volunteer leave.
• Sustainability: The protection of our environment is essential to the future of tourism; as a leading travel group, we have made efforts to affect positive change to the environment.