Senior Data Engineer, BizTech

Airbnb; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Airbnb is seeking a hands-on data engineering leader to guide the design, implementation, and operation of large-scale distributed data systems. You will drive data strategy, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and mentor engineers to ensure data quality and reliability across products and platforms.

The role emphasizes scalable architectures, governance, and driving long-term data engineering practices across the BizTech data ecosystem at Airbnb.

Qualifications

• 9+ years of data engineering or equivalent leadership experience.
• Experience designing and operating distributed data platforms at scale.
• Strong focus on data quality, governance, and system reliability.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, and testing of data systems end-to-end.
• Build batch and real-time data pipelines to support products and business needs.
• Ensure data quality, performance, and stability with monitoring and QA practices.
• Design and optimize data models to meet complex product requirements.
• Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and engineers to scale systems.
• Mentor teams and promote best practices in data governance and reliability.
• Shape long-term data strategies and influence engineering standards.

Skills

Data engineering leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Data modeling

SQL querying

Problem solving

Communication

Data quality & governance

Mentorship

Reliability engineering

Education

Bachelor’s/Master’s in CS/EE

PhD considered with 6+ years

Tools

Spark

Kafka

Flink

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Redshift

BigQuery

Python

Java/Scala

SQL

Job description

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:

The BizTech team at Airbnb is crucial to the company's operations, handling critical data related to compliance with Tax, Payments, and Legal regulations. We also manage application data for tools such as CRM, Jira, and Workday, which are essential for Airbnb’s business. Joining this team means working with cross-functional stakeholders, designing scalable solutions, and contributing to a world-class data engineering environment with an emphasis on quality, scalability, and robust engineering practices.

The Difference You Will Make:

We are looking for a hands-on expert to provide technical leadership in addressing BizTech’s diverse data engineering needs and driving long-term strategies and best practices. This key leadership role requires strong collaboration and influence across teams. You'll play a crucial role in understanding business needs, identifying the right data sources, designing efficient data models, and building reliable, scalable data pipelines. As technology continues to evolve, you'll help shape and maintain significant parts of BizTech’s critical data ecosystem. Your contributions will not only address complex business challenges but also help refine and advance Airbnb’s Data Engineering Paved Path, benefiting the entire data community at Airbnb. We believe in solving problems and contributing back to our data community to continuously improve.

A Typical Day /Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, implementation, and testing of data systems, from architecture to production.
• Build batch and real-time data systems that support business needs and critical products.
• Ensure data systems' quality, performance, and stability through rigorous monitoring and quality assurance practices.
• Design and optimize data models to efficiently meet business and product requirements.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product managers, data scientists, and engineers, to develop scalable systems and drive data-driven decisions.
• Maintain strong partnerships with backend, data science, and machine learning teams to ensure seamless integration of data systems.
• Contribute to long‑term data strategies and influence data engineering practices across the organization.
• Mentor and guide team members, fostering best practices for data quality and governance.
• Advance 3rd party data integrations, enhancing frameworks for data exchange, governance, and lineage.

Your Expertise:

• 9+ years of relevant experience with a Bachelor's/Master’s degree in CS/EE (or 6+ years with a PhD).
• Extensive experience in designing, building, and operating distributed data platforms (e.g., Spark, Kafka, Flink) at a large scale.
• Proficiency in Java, Scala, or Python, along with strong skills in data processing and SQL querying.
• Proven track record of designing and optimizing batch and real‑time data pipelines.
• Strong collaboration skills with the ability to work with product managers, data scientists, and engineers.
• Advanced problem‑solving and analytical skills, with a focus on data quality, governance, and system reliability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to influence stakeholders and convey complex technical concepts.
• Expertise in data modeling, warehousing, and working with relational and columnar databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redshift, BigQuery).
• Experience with integrating machine learning models into data systems (preferred).
• Strong leadership and mentorship capabilities, with experience guiding teams on best practices and technical strategies.
• Flexible and innovative, with the ability to adopt new technologies to enhance data systems and processes.

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.