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Online Travel, Hospitality, E-commerce, Technology, Marketplace

Senior Staff Engineer, Guest & Host (Host Listings & Quality)

RemoteRemoteFull TimeStaff$248,000–$310,000 /yrPosted 1 month agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

  • Senior Staff Engineer
  • Guest & Host
  • Host Listings & Quality
  • backend platforms
  • marketplace
  • listing data
  • searchable
  • visible
  • bookable
  • ML

Nice to have

  • US - Remote Eligible
  • attendance at offsites
  • registered entity
  • excluded states
  • candidate with a disability
  • reasonable accommodation

Role summary

As a Senior Staff Engineer on Airbnb's Guest & Host team, you will define the technical direction for core marketplace backend platforms responsible for storing and serving listing data, determining searchability, visibility, and bookability. You will also ensure host quality through ML and guidance. A key focus will be evolving APIs, data provenance, and architecture to support AI-assisted features and agents, while maintaining stability, simplicity, and extensibility. This role involves partnering across multiple teams, including AI Platform and Trust, to integrate listings and quality architecture into the broader Airbnb ecosystem. You will drive platformization, simplification, and self-service initiatives, and enhance system reliability and engineering practices. Hands-on development, design, and code reviews are expected, along with mentoring individual contributors. The role requires 12+ years of industry experience, with at least 4 years in an Architect or Staff Engineer capacity, demonstrating strong product and platform judgment, and a track record of delivering multi-year technical visions for large-scale systems. Deep expertise in distributed systems, data modeling, API design, and experience with AI-related data systems using languages like Java or Kotlin are essential. A strong operational mindset and excellent communication and influence skills are also critical.

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 5 million hosts who have welcomed over 2 billion guest arrivals in almost every country across the globe. Every day, hosts offer unique stays and experiences that make it possible for guests to connect with communities in a more authentic way.

The Community You Will Join

As a Senior Staff Engineer on Airbnb's Guest & Host team, you'll set the technical direction for the backend platforms at the core of our marketplace. These systems store and serve listing data for Stays, Experiences, and Services, and they decide whether each listing is searchable, visible, and bookable. They also uphold the quality bar for hosts through ML, enforcement, and host guidance. As AI-assisted features and agents become first-class clients of these systems, you'll shape how our APIs, data provenance, and architecture evolve to stay stable, simple, and extensible. You'll partner with engineers across Guest & Host, Trust, Infrastructure, and our AI Platform team to define how listings and quality architecture fits with the rest of Airbnb.

A Typical Day:

  • Set the multi-year technical strategy and roadmap for Listings and Quality backend, and bring the team and stakeholders along.
  • Partner with AI Platform, Trust, Infrastructure, and Product teams to shape how Listings and Quality architecture fits with the rest of Airbnb, and set the platform contracts between them.
  • Design APIs, data models, and data provenance so the platform can safely support AI-assisted features and agents.
  • Drive platformization, simplification, and self-service: generalize shared capabilities, consolidate duplicated systems, and let product teams build within guardrails.
  • Raise the bar on reliability and engineering practices, and reduce operational load on systems in critical business paths.
  • Hands-on development, including design and code reviews.
  • Mentor, guide, and support the career growth of individual contributors.
  • Your Expertise:

  • 12+ years of relevant experience in the tech industry; 4+ years of experience in an Architect or Staff Engineer role, with ownership responsibility over large-scale software systems.
  • Strong product and platform judgment. You understand how backend architecture choices shape product velocity, and you design for the needs of product teams, hosts, and AI clients.
  • Track record of setting a multi-year technical vision for a core platform and delivering it incrementally, such as consolidating services, finishing major migrations, or platformizing shared capabilities.
  • Deep backend expertise in distributed systems, data modeling, and API design for large-scale, business-critical platforms, using Java, Kotlin, or similar languages.
  • Experience designing APIs and data systems for AI-assisted features and agents, including data provenance, validation, and guardrails.
  • Excellent engineering skills and a strong operational mindset, with a track record of improving reliability and reducing operational load on systems in critical business paths.
  • Strong communication and influence across orgs and platform teams, including AI/ML platforms. Demonstrated ability to set platform contracts, align stakeholders, and raise the bar for senior and staff engineers through mentorship.
  • A proven track record of fostering a culture of Diversity and Belonging, within the organization and across the tech community
  • Your Location:

    This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While the position is Remote Eligible, you must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. Click here for the up-to-date list of excluded states. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from.

    Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

    Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

    We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process.

    We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.

    Equal Employment Opportunity:

    Airbnb values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Airbnb are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic.

    How We'll Take Care of You:

    Our job titles may span more than one career level. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.

    Pay Range$248,000—$310,000 USD

    Reasonable Accommodations: We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.

    A Note on Recruiting Scams: Scammers sometimes pose as Airbnb recruiters to get money or personal information from candidates. A few things that will always be true for Airbnb’s hiring process: our open roles are posted on Airbnb’s Career’s Page at careers.airbnb.com, and our recruiters correspond only from @airbnb.com or @ext.airbnb.com email addresses. Our recruiters will never ask for your Social Security number, bank account details, passport, or payment app information while you are interviewing. We’ll also never ask you to pay a fee, send money, deposit or cash a check, or purchase work-related equipment (such as a company laptop) during the interview process. We encourage candidates to remain vigilant of these recruiting scams and not share sensitive information if you do not believe an individual is actually affiliated with Airbnb.

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