Compensation: €4k – €8k • No equity
About the role
Travmonde is migrating from a legacy platform to a new one. We need a full-time engineer to keep the legacy system healthy - diagnosing and fixing bugs as they come up - and build its replacement with us. This is a great fit for someone who is genuinely fast and effective with AI coding assistants and enjoys working across an older codebase and a modern one.
About Travmonde
Travmonde exists to reframe travel as perception in motion, not just logistics. We give travel professionals seamless access to global ground services and products while preserving the local, human touch. Our intelligent system connects clients directly to local people, places, and systems with precision on the ground and depth in meaning, so every trip becomes a memory, story, and encounter. On Travmonde you search, build, share, book, pay in one trusted workflow with one login and one payout.
Our Vision
To lead as the world's most perceptive travel company — transforming how journeys are experienced and honoring every step and every being, human or non-human.
How we work
How we work at Travmonde is defined by a founder's mindset and deep ownership. We operate with a missionary mindset, always focused on our bold, long-term vision, which we execute through precise, local steps. We actively work to gain true operational insight and each of us take full responsibility for solving problems, irrespective of their origin. We constantly build foundations. Our culture encourages us to challenge and commit: we debate fiercely to find the best solution, then align and collectively own the outcome.
What you'll do
- Build the new platform, hands-on. Core services – bookings and jobs, pricing, background workers, payment and messaging integrations – in Python/FastAPI on PostgreSQL, working from an already-written technical blueprint.
- Own the shared core that every module runs on: the database schema and migrations, authentication, and the task-queue machinery.
- Keep today's platform healthy while we replace it. Investigate and fix bugs in the legacy system quickly and safely – and make fixes stick with tests. This is a migration, not a life sentence: you'll help retire this system.
- Be the reviewer of record. Nothing ships unreviewed: you review the team's changes; the team lead reviews yours. Your turnaround target is one working day. We develop with AI coding assistants (Claude Code and similar) – you'll set the standards for how they're used well.
- Level up the team through pairing and code reviews.
Must have
- 7+ years building and running production systems, with at least 2 in Python (FastAPI, or another async framework with a strong typing/Pydantic-style discipline). This is not a lead-only role: you will write code in the new platform every week.
- Has inherited a legacy system before. You have taken over a production codebase you didn't write – undocumented, with live users and real revenue on it – stabilized it, and evolved it without a rewrite. Direct experience with Angular (TypeScript), C#/.NET, and SQL Server (T-SQL / stored procedures) required; deep SQL including stored procedures is part of the job.
- Background-work machinery. Durable task queues, worker processes, scheduled and retried jobs, idempotency, webhook verification (we integrate WhatsApp, email/SMS, and payment providers).
- Has handled real money in code. Bookings, payments, invoicing, or marketplace/e-commerce transactions.
- Code review as a first-class skill. You've been the reviewer of record for a team: fast turnaround (our standard is 24h), teaching through reviews, and comfortable reviewing AI-assisted code – we develop with AI tooling, and the senior's job is to hold the quality bar for it, not to ban it.
- Builds within an existing architecture. We have a written platform foundation (domain model, one-backend architecture, decision register). We need someone whose instinct on day one is "read it, then extend it" — evidence from your history that you've strengthened systems designed by others.
- Mentors mid-level engineers – hands-on, through pairing and reviews, not slide decks. The team is small; growing the people is half the value of the seat.
- Communicates in writing to non-technical stakeholders. You can explain a technical trade-off to a founder in plain language, on paper, and defend it calmly under pushback.
Nice to have
- You've worked on a two-sided marketplace, or in travel/booking/e-commerce.
- You've implemented GDPR mechanics in practice – anonymization, retention windows, data export.
- You've been the most senior engineer in a team of under ten.
Location and work model
This is a remote position. The role requires flexibility to support a global 24/7 operation.
You are
- A brown-field engineer by temperament. Inheriting a running system excites you more than a blank repo. Your first move is reading, not rewriting.
- A fast, generous reviewer. You turn reviews around within a day, and people finish reading your comments knowing more than before.
- Someone who writes things down. Decisions, trade-offs, runbooks — you leave a paper trail others can follow without you in the room.
- Boring on purpose. You pick proven tools over exciting ones and can defend that choice to anyone, including a founder pushing back.
- A teacher at close range. You level people up through pairing and PR comments, not presentations.
- Unbothered by scrutiny. When leadership challenges a decision, you explain it calmly, in plain language, and change your mind when the argument is better than yours.
Work Location: Remote