Stepping into Expedia Group just five months ago, Ganesh has already been immersed in the rapid pace, curiosity, and collaboration that define life in travel tech. After diving straight into experimenting with new tools and AI‑powered approaches, his journey so far reflects what makes EG unique: a place where engineers are encouraged to explore, ask questions, and help shape the technology that powers millions of trips around the world. In this blog, Ganesh shares what drew him to EG, what’s surprised him most, and how building for a global travel marketplace has helped with his career growth already.

Ganesh Subhashchandra Patra | Software Development Engineer III | Bangalore, India
 

Tell us about your experience at Expedia Group so far.

I joined Expedia Group about five months ago as part of the Reviews team. I work as a Software Development Engineer III, and my day‑to‑day responsibilities include developing and maintaining systems that manage reviews posted across Expedia Group’s platforms. So far, from understanding legacy systems to adopting new tools and ways of working, there’s been a constant push to grow. I’ve also appreciated how open everyone is to questions and collaboration, which has made ramping up much smoother.  

What motivated you to join EG and the travel technology industry? 

Traveling is one of those aspects of life that always makes people ask, “where’s next?” We’re always looking for new places, new experiences, new adventures. And technology is also the definition of change, not afraid to try new things. It’s impossible to get bored here. Now add travel and technology: that’s a combination of the two best things around.

What has surprised you the most so far?   

I’ve been surprised by how much hidden complexity there can be behind a system that looks simple from the outside. It showed me how much work goes into our products and features. I work in the Reviews team. It sounds simple, right? It’s just text that people post on the website. But it gets complex when you realize Expedia Group isn’t just one platform, but a family of brands like Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo, and more. Reviews can come from multiple websites, mobile apps, and forms across these brands. We then use machine learning models to moderate and classify those reviews before deciding what to display to our customers. All of that is powered by dozens of microservices working together behind the scenes. 

What is the impact of technology at Expedia Group?

Like I mentioned earlier, both technology and travel share the same mindset: people are always looking for the next big thing. We constantly have to evolve instead sticking with what “already works.” The world has already shifted from planning itineraries through travel agents, to checking websites, to now consulting LLMs and other AI‑powered tools. At Expedia Group, building technology means we’re not just keeping up with this change, we’re helping shape how millions of people discover and experience the world 

What has stood out to you about tech at Expedia Group so far?

That we’re not hesitant to try new technologies. In my team, we already use GenAI models for reviews moderation, and we’re planning to build even better models this year. There’s a strong push for engineers to use AI agents in our day‑to‑day development, and we have access to modern tools like Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Kiro, and Glean to boost our productivity. I’ve also been exposed to technologies that aren’t new to the industry but were new to me personally, like GraphQL, Kotlin, and Datadog. Altogether, it feels like a great environment to experiment, learn, and ship impactful products. 

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