Staff Data Scientist, Airbnb
Algorithm, Support Products
$192-243k
More information about location
Community marketplace for holiday accomodation
Job no longer available
Community marketplace for holiday accomodation
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$192-243k
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere.
Role
Who you are
- 9+ years of relevant industry experience (e.g. ML scientist, tech lead, junior faculty) and a Master’s degree or PhD in relevant fields
- Strong fluency in Python and SQL, experience with Tensorflow, PyTorch, Airflow and data warehouse
- Deep understanding of Machine Learning lifecycle best practices (eg. training/serving, feature engineering, feature/model selection, labeling, A/B test), algorithms (eg. gradient boosted trees, neural networks/deep learning, optimization) and domains (eg. natural language processing, computer vision, personalization and recommendation, anomaly detection)
- Proficiency with LLMs and/or related AI, NLP, CV, UGC/content understanding topics including deep learning, information retrieval, or knowledge extraction. For example, BERT, GPT-2/3/4, LLaMA, Mistral
- Comfort to collaborate with software engineers to understand complex systems and abstracted logs
- Proven ability to communicate clearly and effectively to audiences of varying technical levels
- Proven mix of strong intellectual curiosity with high level of pragmatism and engagement with the technical community. Publications or presentations in recognized journals/conferences is a plus
- Ability to take a product-oriented mindset in using conceptual and innovative thinking to develop and apply solutions taking into consideration the user experience
What the job involves
- Airbnb is a mission-driven company dedicated to helping create a world where anyone can belong anywhere
- Customer Support (CS) aims to build the world’s most loyal travel community through exceptional service
- And AI has been and will continue to be the key to unlock timely, reliable, and empathetic solutions at scale
- As a Data Scientist working on Algorithms, CS, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with a strong team of engineers, product managers, designers and operation agents to build scalable and robust systems to detect, mediate, and solve issues across a wide spectrum
- You will be able to create meaningful impact through deep scientific understanding and interventions for Airbnb CS’s most critical challenges
- For this role, we’re seeking an NLP expert to join the Customer Support Data Science team, and have a direct opportunity to contribute, influence, and lead in the CS x AI space by designing scalable scientific solutions for problems like:
- Detect intents across various entry points with large scale unstructured data using NLP methods
- Generate most helpful self-solve contents in line with Airbnb policy leveraging generative AI to automate low-complexity issues
- Route high-complexity issues to agents with personalized strategy, incorporating user history and agent performance
- Summarize customer journey and conversations with foundational or fine tuned large language models (LLM) to assist CS agents
- Collect evidence from images and receipts to gauge monetary value of the request leveraging computer vision
- A Typical Day:
- Identify high impact business opportunities through data exploration and model prototype, translate business problem into scientific formulations
- Work collaboratively with cross functional partners including software engineers, product managers, operations and research, to refine requirements for machine learning models, drive scientific decisions, and quantify impact
- Hands-on develop, productionize, and operate machine learning models and pipelines at scale, including both batch and real-time use cases, structured and unstructured data
- Build reusable, high-performing, scalable machine learning models with internal paved path tooling, incorporating third-party information and state-of-the-art innovations
- Regularly present work internally at monthly meetings to technical, engineering and product stakeholders to iterate and generate excitement on roadmap progress
- Publish externally and engage with the scientific community to advance Airbnb’s standing
Our take
When Airbnb was originally founded, the product helped customers book air mattresses on people's apartment floors. Since then, Airbnb has had over a billion customers hosted through its platform. With more than 4 million registered hosts worldwide, it has grown into a major player in the hospitality sector.
Airbnb has been successful in disrupting the traditional holiday lettings sector. Before it existed accommodation was limited to hotels and bed and breakfasts, but Airbnb has mainstreamed the idea of renting out spare rooms or even entire homes. It has created a new sector of hosts purchasing properties to rent out on the platform and provides a level of flexibility and a range of offerings not previously possible for travelers.
Perhaps a victim of its own success, by 2022 supply of Airbnb-listed properties began to outstrip demand in some markets, as hosts overestimated the appetite for domestic travel. However, the company is still posting strong financials and has unveiled new tools to support its hosts in a tougher rental market. With a healthy bottom line and a huge user base, Airbnb is very likely to overcome the current market turbulence and continue its growth.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
25% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 10 rounds)
Apr 2020
$500m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Mar 2017
$447.8m
SERIES F
Total funding: $3.8bn
Company benefits
- Paid volunteer time
- Health food and snacks
- Generous parental and family leave
- Learning and development
- Annual travel and experiences credit
Company values
- Champion the Mission: We’re united with our community to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere
- Be a Host: We're caring, open, and encouraging to everyone we work with
- Embrace the Adventure: We’re driven by curiosity, optimism, and the belief that every person can grow
- Be a Cereal Entrepreneur: We’re determined and creative in transforming our bold ambitions into reality
Company HQ
Showplace Square, San Francisco, CA
Articles
Leadership
Brian Chesky
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously an Industrial Designer, studying at Rhode Island School of Design.
Nathan Blecharczyk
(Co-Founder & CSO)Studied Computer Science at Harvard, and had around 4 years of professional Software Engineering experience before founding Airbnb, including interning at Microsoft.
Joe Gebbia
(Co-Founder)Also studied Industrial Design at Rhode Island, and previously founded various design-related startups
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