Senior Backend Engineer, Payments Risk & Fraud

airbnb, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Airbnb, Inc. is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for Payments Transaction Risk to design and build scalable risk systems across the payments platform. You will partner with data science, product, and operations teams to detect fraud and mitigate risk in real time.

You will own APIs, data pipelines, and integrations with payment networks, while emphasizing observability, testing, and high availability. Remote-eligible role based in the US with occasional on-site meetings.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend software engineering in Payments/Fintech.
• Proficient in Java, Kotlin or Python; React experience a plus.
• Experience with large-scale web apps, APIs, data pipelines, and algorithms.
• Commitment to high code quality, testing, and best practices.
• Experience in cross-functional collaboration with product, data science and operations.
• Familiarity with experimentation and machine learning techniques.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s in CS or equivalent experience.
• Experience in fraud/spam detection in payments is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable risk services for the payments platform.
• Collaborate with data scientists, product, and operations to derive insights and respond to fraud.
• Integrate with third-party vendors, networks, and processors for risk systems.
• Improve risk detection, mitigation, and resolution strategies as requirements evolve.
• Ensure continuous monitoring and observability of risk systems.
• Drive engineering practices and collaboration across Airbnb teams.

Skills

Backend engineering

Java

Kotlin

Python

React

API design

Data pipelines

Automated testing

ML awareness

Education

CS degree

Job description

Airbnb, Inc. is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for Payments Transaction Risk to design and build scalable risk systems across the payments platform. You will partner with data science, product, and operations teams to detect fraud and mitigate risk in real time.

You will own APIs, data pipelines, and integrations with payment networks, while emphasizing observability, testing, and high availability. Remote-eligible role based in the US with occasional on-site meetings.