Senior Staff Software Engineer, Airbnb
Payments
$244-305k
More information about location
Community marketplace for holiday accomodation
Open for applications
Community marketplace for holiday accomodation
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$244-305k
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere.
Role
Who you are
- We are looking for a seasoned technical leader who can operate at the intersection of deep systems expertise and organizational influence
- 15+ years of technical experience, with 10+ years of relevant industry experience in a fast-paced tech environment
- Prior knowledge of Regulatory Compliance standards (AML, KYC, sanctions screening) and demonstrated experience designing and implementing those controls at scale
- Proven track record of setting technical direction and architectural strategy for a large engineering organization, with the ability to drive alignment across organizational boundaries
- Experience designing systems that span multiple teams and domains, with a focus on cohesion, reusability, and long-term maintainability over initiative-by-initiative solutions
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence senior technical and non-technical stakeholders across the company
- Strong problem solver with deep experience operating and leading on-call for production systems at scale
- Technical leadership: hands-on experience leading large project teams, making high-stakes design tradeoffs, and translating regulatory requirements into scalable system architectures
- BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent work experience
- Proficiency in one or more back-end server languages (Java/Ruby/Go/C++/etc.)
- Deep understanding of architectural patterns of high-scale web and data applications
- Be future looking — we might be focused on immediate regulations, but need to build for the long term. You think in terms of platforms, not projects
- End-to-end ownership mentality that transcends team boundaries, with the credibility and judgment to make decisions that carry direct financial and legal implications
What the job involves
- As a Senior Staff Engineer and Technical Lead for the Payments Compliance organization, you would own the technical vision and architectural direction across the full Compliance engineering landscape — spanning Policy Enforcement, Identity, Screening, Auditing, and Compliance Experience
- You will ensure our compliance systems are cohesive, scalable, and aligned with broader company priorities as we navigate an increasingly complex global regulatory environment
- As a Senior Staff Engineer, you will serve as the connective tissue across Compliance's multi-year strategic initiatives — defining how components fit together, identifying where capabilities can be shared rather than duplicated, and ensuring we leverage platform investments from partner teams
- Your decisions will directly affect how Airbnb meets obligations such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), and sanctions screening while minimizing operational cost and customer friction
- This role extends well beyond the Compliance organization itself
- You will partner directly with cross-organizational engineering teams, as well as cross-functional stakeholders across Product, Content, Legal, and Design
- The technical choices you make carry direct financial and legal exposure — requiring the judgment, depth of expertise, and organizational credibility to drive high-stakes design tradeoffs across team boundaries
- Own the end-to-end system design vision for the Compliance organization, setting the architectural direction for an engineering organization of nearly 30 engineers across multiple teams
- Drive foundational architectural shifts, including the move from an account-centric model to a customer-centric one — rethinking how we model identity, risk, and enforcement across the platform
- Lead the technical strategy for expanding KYC capabilities — supporting small and medium businesses, reimagining business onboarding and account structures, enabling KYC through third-party APIs, and extending verification to third-party payees
- Architect systems that adapt to the evolving digital identity landscape — including new verification standards, government-issued digital credentials, and shifting privacy regulations — without requiring costly re-platforming
- Ensure our technical foundations are flexible enough to absorb unforeseen regulatory mandates with aggressive timelines, without destabilizing existing systems or requiring disproportionate engineering investment
- Partner with technical leaders across multiple organizations to drive alignment on shared capabilities and cohesive system design, reducing duplication and compounding technical debt
- Work closely with Product, Design, Policy, Legal, Operations, and other cross-functional partners as part of a globally distributed team to define and ship impactful features
- Lead and mentor engineers — both inside and outside your immediate team — raising the technical bar and developing the next generation of technical leaders within Compliance
- Advocate for and drive systemic improvements by identifying patterns to streamline development, reduce toil, and increase technical quality and operational excellence over time
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
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 HQ
Showplace Square, San Francisco, CA
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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