Infrastructure Operations Specialist

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is the world’s leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We’re also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business.

As an employee of KAYAK, you will be part of a travel company that operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands including momondo, Cheapflights and HotelsCombined, among others. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is at our core and every employee has an opportunity to make their mark. Our focus is on building the best travel search engine to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.

We are looking for a forward-thinking, hardworking, and multi-tasking Infrastructure Operations Specialist (Data Center) who is passionate about learning and delivering every single day. You will join KAYAK's Operations team and play a key role in the day-to-day support of our development and production environments. If you are an outstanding teammate who loves to engage with colleagues at a professional and personal level, we'd love to hear from you!

This role requires commuting to our Concord, MA office at least 3 times per week. 

In this role, you will:

• Datacenter Operations & Maintenance: Perform routine maintenance, inspections, and monitoring of our datacenter environment to ensure reliable performance.
• Hardware Management: Participate in the server lifecycle; install and upgrade firmware and operating systems to keep systems secure.
• Support & Collaboration: Act as on-site "smart hands" for technical tasks; coordinate with vendors and internal teams to troubleshoot and resolve issues.
• Incident & problem resolution: Process and triage inbound tickets from developers and internal teams; respond to hardware, network, and datacenter incidents and follow through to resolution.
• Provisioning & Upgrades: Schedule and perform regular upgrades of production software and operating systems; provision production resources as needed.
• Documentation: Maintain clear, accurate records of datacenter assets, configurations, and procedures.
• On-call: Participate in an on-call rotation
  to support critical incidents.
• Work with security and operations teams to execute patching and hardening procedures as needed.

In this role, you will not

• Perform end-user desktop support (e.g., replacing mice or keyboards).
• Manage employee accounts or email administration.
• Be primarily responsible for designing new platform services or for day-to-day cloud platform engineering.
• Regular cloud platform work (AWS/GCP) is not required for this role; occasional interactions may occur.

Skills & Qualifications

• Education: A degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field is preferred; however, equivalent professional experience or relevant certifications are considered as valuable as formal degrees.

• Technical Skills: Proficiency in server hardware (e.g., Dell, HP, Cisco), operating systems (Linux, Windows Server), and fundamental networking concepts. Experience with the Linux command-line interface is highly advantageous.

• Soft Skills: The ability to learn rapidly and work both autonomously and collaboratively within a team. Strong problem-solving capabilities and excellent communication skills are essential for effective coordination with external vendors and internal departments.

• Automation & Cloud Technologies: A comprehensive understanding of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a significant asset. Expertise in configuration management tools such as Puppet, Ansible, orchestration platforms like Kubernetes, and containerization technologies is highly valued. Relevant certifications in these domains will be taken into consideration.

• Availability: Willingness to participate in an on-call rotation and travel to local datacenter sites as required.

Benefits and Perks

• Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year

• Focus on mental health and well-being:

  • 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!)

  • No meeting Fridays

• Paid parental leave

• Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday

• Paid volunteer time

• Focus on your career growth:

  • Development Dollars

  • Leadership development

  • Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings

• Travel Discounts

• Employee Resource Groups

Inclusion

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels they belong and can thrive. We know the best ideas come when we bring different voices to the table, so we're forming a team as dynamic as the diners and restaurants we serve—and fostering a culture where everyone feels free to be themselves.

If you need adjustments during the application or interview process, or on the job, we’re here to support you. Please contact your recruiter to request any accommodations.

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