Software Engineer (India)

ABOUT ACAI TRAVEL

Acai Travel is revolutionising the travel industry with cutting-edge AI agentic solutions for leading Airlines, OTAs, and TMCs. We're rebuilding travel with agentic software.

Our founders previously sold an AI company to American Express GBT—value for your equity is guaranteed! We've grown from 3 clients ($15K MRR) to 10 clients ($80K MRR) at 30% monthly growth.

Our culture is grounded in Zen and Tibetan Buddhism principles, fostering ego-less problem-solving and emotional stillness. We consider the company a playground to become better individuals—you will be transformed into a more empowered, joyful person.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We're looking for a talented Software Engineer who wants to grow at the intersection of engineering excellence and product thinking. You'll build backend systems for our AI automation platform while learning to think deeply about product decisions, customer needs, and the "why" behind every feature.

This isn't just about writing code—you'll learn to challenge assumptions, collaborate with customers, and see features through from conception to measurable business results.

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCEPTIONAL

🙋‍♀️ Growing Ownership: You take initiative, ask great questions, and see tasks through to completion even when it requires extra effort.

🤩 Product Curiosity: You want to understand the "why" behind what you're building and care about user behaviour and business impact.

😄 Optimistic Collaboration: You help teammates solve problems and create positive energy around building.

😎 Authentic Communication: You communicate clearly with engineers and non-engineers alike and want to learn how other disciplines work.

👷‍♂️ Craft Excellence: You care deeply about code quality and continuously want to improve your skills.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Build Product-Driven Systems

• Implement scalable Go services (gRPC, MongoDB) with guidance from senior engineers
• Work across AI workflows, automation logic, and integrations
• Learn to make architecture decisions based on customer needs

Contribute to Features End-to-End

• Collaborate with customers and product team to understand requirements
• Suggest improvements to technical implementations
• Ship with fast iteration cycles and validate real-world impact

Participate in Product Conversations

• Bring questions and observations about edge cases and user experience
• Learn to balance pragmatism with quality using "minimum lovable product" mindset
• Work directly with customers to understand their problems

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Technical Foundation

• 2-4 years of backend engineering experience
• Proficiency in Go (or willingness to learn quickly if strong in similar languages like Typescript, Python, Java, Rust, C++)
• Exposure to gRPC, MongoDB, or similar technologies
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP) and basic DevOps practices
• Curiosity about AI and automation solving real business problems
• Strong English communication skills for international collaboration
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field from a reputed institution (IITs, NITs, BITS, top tier-1 institutions preferred)

Product-Minded Traits

• Interest in understanding business models, user behaviour, and success metrics
• Willingness to ask "why" and challenge your own assumptions
• Experience or desire to work closely with product managers, designers, and customer teams
• Comfortable with ambiguity and learning new domains quickly

Exceptional Qualities

• Self-motivated with a growth mindset
• Authentic communicator who builds people and ideas up
• Excited about building great products that create real value
• Optimistic problem-solver who stays curious

OUR STACK

AI-driven products on LLMs, Go, gRPC, MongoDB, Terraform, Auth0, TypeScript/Next.js, Datadog

WHY JOIN ACAI

🚀 Proven Growth: 30% monthly growth, founders sold previous company to AmEx GBT
🎯 Dual Impact: Build technical skills while learning product thinking and customer relationships
🧘 Personal Growth: Zen/Buddhist culture focused on self-awareness and empowerment
💰 Meaningful Equity: Significant ownership in category-defining startup with proven exit track record
🌍 Global Exposure: Work with international clients across the world, opportunities for strategic travel
🏗️ Ground Floor Opportunity: Be among the founding members of our India engineering team and shape its culture
📈 Accelerated Learning: Work directly with experienced founders and Barcelona engineering team

REPORTING STRUCTURE

• Reports to: CTO or Lead Engineer
• Collaboration: Work closely with Product, Customer Success, Sales, and engineering teams in Barcelona, New York, and Pune

LOCATION & COMPENSATION

Pune, India / Remote in India - Full time in-person / remote with flexibility when required

• Competitive salary (₹15-22 LPA CTC based on experience)
• Significant equity stake (ESOPs) in high-growth company
• Annual epic team off-sites worldwide. 2024 - Italian Alps, 2025 - Bangkok
• Private health insurance coverage for you and your partner & kids

WORKING WITH OUR GLOBAL TEAM

You'll collaborate closely with our Barcelona headquarters, participating in product decisions and technical architecture discussions across time zones. This role offers significant autonomy while being part of a tight-knit global engineering culture.