OpenTable

Staff Software Engineer (Availability)

Toronto, Canada · Staff+

Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 5 days ago

C#.NETDistributed SystemsBackend DevelopmentCode ReviewSQLNoSQLRedisKubernetesCI/CDRESTKafkaLeadership

About the role

We're looking for a Staff Engineer who applies a deep understanding of the underlying technologies and dependencies to solve problems.
They help raise the bar on performance, reliability, and simplicity as we scale availability search at OpenTable.
Technologies you'll work with include C#/.NET, Redis, in-memory and distributed caches, RESTful APIs, and Kafka-based event-driven architectures (EDA).

You'll be both a hands-on engineer and a technical leader: writing code, writing technical design docs, reviewing design docs, and owning solutions end-to-end from design through rollout, observability, and ongoing iteration.
Design, implement, and evolve C#/.NET services and APIs that expose availability information to internal and external consumers.
Own the architecture of availability search services and related caches, ensuring low-latency, high-throughput performance at global scale.
Lead the evolution of our event-driven architecture (Kafka) for propagating inventory, configuration, and policy changes into availability systems.
Use AI tooling thoughtfully (e.g., for design exploration, code generation, test scaffolding, and incident analysis) to increase team velocity while maintaining a high quality bar
Drive execution and outcomes
Represent the team in projects you own during sync meetings by providing clear, and actionable updates.
Set and uphold code, design, and review standards for the team in C#/.NET and our surrounding ecosystem, with a focus on simplicity, testability, readability, and long-term maintainability.

Strong experience (5+ years) designing, implementing, and operating backend services in C#/.NET
Deep hands-on experience with Redis and other cache technologies, including key design, eviction strategies, cache invalidation patterns, and multi-layer caching topologies.
Strong experience with database systems (SQL/NoSQL), including schema design, indexing strategies, query optimization, and handling high-volume read/write workloads.
Experience with observability and performance tuning in production (profiling, capacity planning, latency/throughput trade-offs).
Demonstrated ability to decompose large, ambiguous initiatives into clear technical plans that multiple engineers can execute.

Experience with search or ranking systems
Background in reservation or marketplace platforms where availability and matching are core problems.
Familiarity with Kubernetes-based deployments, service meshes, and modern CI/CD pipelines.
Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
Company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!)
Paid volunteer time
Focus on your career growth:

This is a hybrid schedule (2x/week) role planned for our downtown Toronto, Canada office.
About OpenTable
With millions of diners and tens of thousands of restaurant partners around the world, OpenTable is an industry leader in online reservations.
Our technology helps restaurants focus on what matters most - their guests, their teams, and their business - while giving diners a reliable, delightful way to find the perfect restaurant for any occasion.
Every OpenTable employee has a tangible impact, contributing to a global team that includes our sister brand KAYAK and its portfolio of travel products.
We believe hospitality is about taking care of others, and that ethos shapes both our products and how we work together.
The Opportunity
The Diner Core Availability team builds and operates the systems that power availability search for the core diner experience -delivering fast, reliable booking options across our global network.
We serve millions of diners, handle several thousands of searches per second, and operate under strict low-latency and high-reliability requirements.
from ingesting upstream changes (inventory, policies, events) through event-driven pipelines, to maintaining highly-optimized in-memory and distributed cache layers, to responding to real-time search requests from web and mobile clients.
encourage thoughtful debate, blameless retros, and data-driven decision-making.

This listing is sourced directly from OpenTable's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.