At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead product engineering across mobile, web, and backend to drive impactful changes.
- Company: Join Tripadvisor, a global leader in travel experiences and technology.
- Benefits: Flexible work options, competitive salary, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Embrace a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on travel experiences while collaborating with diverse teams.
- Qualifications: 10+ years of software experience with strong mobile app expertise.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
About Tripadvisor
The Tripadvisor Group connects people to experiences worth sharing, and aims to be the world’s most trusted source for travel and experiences. We leverage our brands, technology, and capabilities to connect our global audience with partners through rich content, travel guidance, and two-sided marketplaces for experiences, accommodations, restaurants, and other travel categories. The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIP), include a portfolio of travel brands and businesses, including Tripadvisor, Viator, and TheFork.
The Tripadvisor Experiences Engineering team is distributed across Europe and is responsible for the platform, mobile apps and all their supporting infrastructure. We run the systems that help operators build their businesses and those which enable third parties to utilise our inventory. We provide the tools which help our customer services team provide world class service to travellers and operators internationally.
About the role
We're looking for a Principal Product Engineer who pairs deep engineering craft with strong product instincts. You'll work across the stack - mobile, web, backend - wherever the highest-leverage problem happens to live that quarter. You don't wait for a perfectly scoped ticket; you partner with product, design, and data to figure out what's worth building, then ship it end-to-end. We expect breadth. We also expect real depth in the mobile app ecosystem - our customer-facing experiences live there. But we're not hiring a mobile only specialist. We're hiring a generalist with mobile chops who can lead an iOS architecture review on Tuesday and untangle a backend latency regression on Wednesday.
What you'll do
- Identify, scope, and ship the changes that move business metrics - across mobile, web, services, and data layers
- Architect long-lasting systems that hold up under real production conditions: performance, reliability, scalability, offline behavior, consistency
- Lead technical design reviews across teams, weighing trade-offs not just in code but in product impact, time-to-ship, and operational cost
- Drive operational maturity wherever it's weakest - release management, observability, incident response, performance monitoring - including in the mobile apps
- Partner with PMs, designers, and engineering leaders to shape what we build, why, and in what order; you're a peer in those conversations, not a downstream implementer
- Set the technical bar for the org by example: write the prototype, prove the pattern, then teach it
- Communicate trade-offs clearly to engineers, product partners, and senior stakeholders
What we're looking for
- 10+ years of software experience, with significant time still spent hands-on in code - track record of shipping product-impacting work end-to-end, not just owning a layer
- Real depth in the mobile app ecosystem (iOS and/or Android, with strong fluency in Swift and/or Kotlin and the surrounding ecosystem - offline sync, push, auth, persistence, networking, REST/GraphQL) - and credible breadth beyond it
- Demonstrated breadth: you've worked seriously in at least one of {web frontend, backend services, data/infra, platform tooling} alongside mobile, and can hold your own in code review there
- Strong product judgment: you've made calls about what not to build, and can defend them with evidence
- Comfort troubleshooting in production across stacks - crash analysis, latency tracing, release-health debugging
- Excellent cross-functional collaboration; you make the people around you better
Nice to have
- Background in marketplaces, bookings, or other transactional consumer products
- Time spent close to data - experimentation, analytics instrumentation, or ML-adjacent work
Our Cultural Pillars:
- Traveler first: We exist to create value for our customer, the traveler. We enable our suppliers and partners to unlock this value. Their collective behaviors and insights are what drives us.
- Execution is our edge: We act fast, experiment, learn from failure, iterate, and improve the solutions of tomorrow across every aspect of our business. Our execution is agile, data-driven, prioritised, and built to scale. We assume no problem is someone else’s problem and finish what can be done today, knowing tomorrow will bring fresh challenges.
- We succeed together: The best outcomes are driven by empathic, humble, and diverse subject matter experts working toward shared goals. We collaborate relentlessly, challenge assumptions, give actionable feedback, and set each other up for success through empowered teams with a clear charter. We transparently take ownership of our growth, individually and as a team. We celebrate the quality of our effort, our learnings, and our collective achievements.
We strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please make sure to reach out to your individual recruiter or our team at AccessibleRecruiting@tripadvisor.com. If you have any additional questions about careers at Tripadvisor you can email us at recruitment@tripadvisor.com. We have all the answers!
Principal Product Engineer in London employer: Tripadvisor
At TheFork, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that champions a vibrant work culture and prioritises employee growth. Our fully remote position allows you to thrive in a flexible environment while connecting with a diverse team across Europe, all dedicated to enhancing the dining experience. With strong core values guiding our operations, we offer unique opportunities for personal and professional development, making us an ideal choice for those seeking meaningful and rewarding employment.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Product Engineer in London
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Tripadvisor or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Tripadvisor.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Tripadvisor.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Tripadvisor that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Principal Product Engineer in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Tripadvisor.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Tripadvisor and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Tripadvisor
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Tripadvisor uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
