Senior Data Engineer (MLOps)

Rocket Travel is looking for a Senior Data Engineer (MLOps) with experience in Python/SQL and maintaining machine learning models in production to join our growing Data Science Team. Remote employment is an option for this role

The Data Science Team oversees building internal-facing decision making tools and product-facing production models that aid in scaling our growing business. 

Rocket Travel is a place where you:

• Work with a group of intrinsically motivated people with a track record for building successful new businesses from scratch.
• Embody curiosity, community, and accountability. We live and build products by these values every day. 
• Own decisions and take action that can be implemented in a matter of days (or hours).
• Get inspired and encouraged to vacation faster, with an annual vacation stipend.
• Receive a competitive compensation package, including bonus, 401k with match, flexible vacation time, maternity and paternity benefits, health, and dental insurance.
  • Total Compensation is based on experience - Sign-on Bonus + Salary: $115k - $150k + Bonus: 15% - 20%
• Can have the option to work remotely. Though we have great offices in Chicago’s West Loop and in NYC’s Empire State building, we have a hybrid team, a flexible work environment, and we welcome full-time remote applicants, too.
• Share your passion for travel with equally adventurous teammates. 
• Work within the largest online travel company in the world. Rocket Travel creates B2C and B2B2C travel products and is part of Booking Holdings (BKNG). We have many worldwide partners and a diversified business. Despite the world’s current situation, Booking Holdings has been rated the healthiest company in travel, and Rocket itself is already seeing travel demand surpass pre-pandemic levels

As a Senior Data Engineer (MLOps) at Rocket Travel, you will: 

• Iterate and improve our machine learning model APIs running in production, making it more testable, resilient and automated
• Build python and sql data pipelines to address different business needs, which includes: evaluating metrics for A/B test results, modeling data for front-end analytics
• Evolve the Rocket data science toolkit by identifying and recommending best tools for each task. Examples of technologies that we experimented and adopted in the past include: MLflow, Sagemaker, DBT, Jenkins
• Own projects end-to-end, which includes creating data pipelines for models, setting infrastructure for APIs, and having an opinion on how our productions models should be structured
• Work closely with data scientists to further refine data requirements 
• Maintain a sense of empathy for our customers and move quickly where users are most acutely affected

About you:

• You have worked with Python/SQL for at least 3 years in a professional setting
• You have experience deploying machine learning models into production, and building systems for these processes. Experience with AWS Sagemaker a plus

• You have comfort with containerization technologies (kubernetes, ECS, docker)

• You are intellectually curious and self-directed problem solver, keen to work on a variety of data projects and independently search for answers
• You have worked with Python common data related libraries (pandas, numpy)
• You have worked with both MPP databases (e.g. Redshift, Vertica) as well as NoSQL databases (Redis, Couchbase)
• You have experience working with DevOps tools like Git. Jenkins and TeamCity experience a plus
• You have hands-on experience with SQL and can write complex queries with ease. You have experience building batch and real-time data pipelines. Bonus points if you have worked with Airflow and dbt
• You have familiarity with AWS data related tools (kinesis, glue, redshift)
• You care deeply about the quality of your code, but are also aware of timelines and don’t spend countless hours trying to bring things to perfection
• You communicate clearly and effectively

About Rocket Travel

We make travel more rewarding than anyone else 

Rocket Travel awards customers for booking travel through our products, allowing people to earn or use loyalty benefits from their favorite loyalty programs.

Our journey

We began in 2013 with the same goal of making travel even more rewarding. This started with our bespoke Rocketmiles website, earning travelers their favorite airline loyalty miles for hotel bookings, and every year since, we’ve advanced our goal.

We now partner with over 60 loyalty programs that travelers can choose from, we build unique partner-branded travel sites, we offer the ability to earn and redeem loyalty rewards, we sit within Booking Holdings—the most experienced Group of travel companies in the world—and we continually grow the number of ways that people can book travel through us, from stays to cars and more.



Travel constantly evolves, opening additional opportunities to create rewarding experiences, and we intend to be at the forefront of building and innovating on those for travelers worldwide.

A diverse and global team

Our teammates work across the globe, in person and remotely. We have offices in Chicago, NYC, Bangkok, Bogota, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Cebu. No matter where people work, our main team-building goal is to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. We do that with a Diversity and Inclusion Committee, setting DEI hiring goals, investing in employee retention, and conducting regular team training that fosters collaboration and morale.

All of these efforts help ensure that we’re promoting a supportive workplace, where people are motivated to grow professionally and build rewarding travel experiences together. 

Note on general employment requirements

Candidates should be authorized to accept employment in the US from any employer, should be willing to start within three weeks of accepting an offer, and should be able to work the same daily working hours as our Chicago office.

A final word

If the idea of working within an environment that promotes accountability, curiosity, and community to build reward travel products sounds motivating to you, we would love to hear from you—even if you’re unable to meet 100% of the job requirements. We never expect people to have all of the answers, as long as they’re willing and able to learn and grow with us.