Senior Software Engineer, Distributed Transactional Database

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

Job summary

A leading company in the tech industry is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join their Transactional Storage Services team. In this role, you will design and build a new open-source NewSql database on stateful Kubernetes, tackle complex technical challenges, and collaborate with a skilled team. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in distributed systems and a strong background working with cloud services.

Benefits

Bonuses

Equity options

Employee travel credits

Qualifications

• 5+ years of industry experience in distributed systems.
• Strong understanding of cloud providers and their services.
• Ability to analyze metrics and troubleshoot failures.

Responsibilities

• Design frameworks for monitoring and service discovery.
• Deliver zero-downtime replication pipelines with robust failover.
• Implement solutions for cross-region resiliency and disaster recovery.

Skills

Distributed systems

Collaboration

Communication

Troubleshooting

Tools

Cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Kubernetes

Infrastructure as Code (Chef, Terraform)

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Distributed Transactional Database

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 Transactional Storage Services team is part of Airbnb’s Online Data organization, which owns all of Airbnb's online serving stores and databases. The team is responsible for designing, building, and operating a new source-of-truth, open-source NewSql database running on stateful Kubernetes, hosting critical Airbnb data with features like backup restore, CDC, and multi-tenancy.

This stack will serve as the unified storage backend for Airbnb online data such as MySql, KVStore, GraphDB, etc. Our core concerns are reliability, scalability, efficiency, availability, security, and platform evolution. As a team member, you will work with talented engineers on a modern distributed database system, gaining insight into how future data systems will be built.

The Difference You Will Make:

We are seeking senior engineers capable of solving broad and deep technical challenges in areas including:

• Control Plane and Operations: Design frameworks for monitoring, permissions, service discovery, and automate critical database operations like config management, image building, release certification, and zero-downtime deployment.
• Migration and Adoption: Deliver zero-downtime replication pipelines with near-real-time consistency and robust failover mechanisms.
• Backup & Restore: Conduct disaster recovery case studies, implement solutions for cross-region resiliency, PiTR, and safeguard business continuity with appropriate cluster topology and policies.

Your Expertise:

• 5+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and infrastructure fundamentals.
• Experience owning complex codebases and writing clean, maintainable code.
• Ability to analyze large-scale distributed systems, monitor metrics, troubleshoot failures efficiently.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills in remote environments.
• Experience with cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) and their storage, VM, networking, and security offerings.

Nice to haves:

• Experience in Java, Go, Rust, or C++
• Automation frameworks and tooling experience
• Knowledge of Kubernetes, operator pattern, helm, Infrastructure as Code (Chef, Terraform)

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb values diverse talent and ideas, fostering innovation and engagement. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. We also provide disability-inclusive application and interview processes. Candidates requiring accommodations should contact us at: [e-mail].

How We'll Take Care of You:

Our job titles may span multiple levels. Compensation depends on factors like experience, skills, and market demand. The role may include bonuses, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.