Senior Data Scientist, Trust – Algorithms

airbnb, Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Airbnb is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to join their User Segmentation team. In this role, you will leverage machine learning and statistical methods to enhance user features and drive strategic decisions. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in data science, experience in building scalable solutions, and a passion for improving user experiences.

Benefits

Bonus potential

Equity options

Employee Travel Credits

Qualifications

• 6+ years of relevant industry and/or academic experience.
• Strong fluency in Python and modern frameworks.
• Deep understanding of modern machine learning techniques.

Responsibilities

• Build machine learning models to detect high-risk activities.
• Collaborate with data engineering teams for actionable insights.
• Develop measurement strategies to test new product features.

Skills

Machine Learning

Data Analysis

Python

Deep Learning

SQL

Education

Advanced degree in a quantitative field

PhD in a relevant field

Tools

Pytorch

Tensorflow

Job description

Senior Data Scientist, Trust - Algorithms

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 User Segmentation team is committed to building a golden set of dynamic and static attributes for our guests and hosts, which can drive valuable insights for many product teams at Airbnb. This is a highly cross-functional effort, spanning Trust, Marketing, Customer Support, Guest & Host, Core, and Quality teams.

The Difference You Will Make:

In this role, you will develop and implement methodologies to identify essential features that describe Airbnb users by leveraging machine learning models, statistical inference, and AI. You will collaborate closely with data engineering teams to define and build actionable knowledge about guests, hosts, and listings, ensuring user features are widely accessible and impactful across the business. Success in this role will be measured by your ability to deliver robust data insights and scalable solutions that drive strategic decision-making and enhance user experiences.

A Typical Day:

• Build machine learning models to detect high-risk activities, develop data mastery to uncover learnings, and formulate structured frameworks to classify and interpret our users’ behavior.
• Work cross-functionally with operations and product teams to define and collect labels for model training, optimize the effectiveness of manual review, and build self-satisfiable verifications that scale.
• Develop measurement strategies to test new product features that deter and mitigate risk, while adhering to ethical guidelines.
• Regularly present work internally 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.
• Devise models to make optimal business decisions while minimizing risk.
• Utilize Deep Learning techniques for advanced feature engineering and model building, e.g., how to model for user behaviors sequences, or how can we detect anomalies effectively.

Your Expertise:

• Advanced degree in a quantitative field. PhD is a plus.
• 6+ years of relevant industry and/or academic experience developing scientific frameworks, building machine learning models, and implementing advanced experimentation techniques.
• Strong fluency in Python and familiarity with modern frameworks (e.g. Pytorch, Tensorflow) for hands-on IC work and advanced data analysis in SQL at scale.
• Deep understanding of modern machine learning techniques and their mathematical underpinnings (e.g. classification, clustering, optimization, deep neural networks and natural language processing). Ability to develop, validate, and deploy new model applications as well as enhancing existing algorithms to achieve improved performance and model explainability.
• Comfortable collaborating with software engineers to understand complex systems and abstracted logs.
• Proven ability to create and drive technical and impactful roadmaps for the business, and lead seamless execution of it.
• Proven ability to communicate clearly and effectively to cross functional partners of varying technical levels.
• Experience with advanced experimentation techniques is a plus.
• Experience productionizing real-time machine learning models is a plus.

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: [e-mail] . 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.

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.