Senior Software Engineer, Users Foundation

Airbnb; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 196,000 - 227,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus eligibility

Equity

Employee Travel Credits

Job summary

Airbnb is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Users Foundation team. You will design and build distributed backend services and APIs that form the core of user data access across the platform, while leading multi-engineer initiatives and ensuring reliability at scale.

The role emphasizes ownership, technical direction, and collaboration with partner teams to safely deploy changes to shared infrastructure. Remote eligibility applies, with potential office attendance as needed.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong fundamentals in distributed systems, including messaging/eventing and data consistency.
• Experience building and operating high-traffic backend services.
• Track record of leading ambiguous, multi-month projects from problem definition through delivery.
• Experience driving technical decisions across team boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate backend services and APIs core to Airbnb's platform.
• Lead multi-engineer projects end-to-end, from problem definition through rollout and operations.
• Improve reliability and scalability of systems handling account data and events at high volume.
• Partner with engineering teams across the company to plan and safely execute changes to shared infrastructure.
• Mentor other engineers and raise the bar on code quality, testing, and operational excellence.

Skills

5+ years experience

Distributed systems

Backend services

Technical leadership

Cross-team coordination

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Users Foundation

United States

Role overview

Application 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:

At Airbnb, our mission is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere. The Users Foundation team owns User Data at Airbnb - the identity and account information behind every guest and host interaction on the platform. We build and operate the core service that acts as the gateway for how other teams across Airbnb read and write user data.

Because nearly every team touches user data in some way, our systems sit at the center of the platform, and reliability, correctness, and scale aren't nice-to-haves, they're the job.

The Difference You Will Make:

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Users Foundation team, you will design and build distributed systems that handle enormous scale with strict correctness and reliability requirements. In this role, you will work closely with engineering teams across Airbnb to ship changes safely to infrastructure they depend on.

This is a high-ownership role: you will set technical direction for your projects, lead tradeoff discussions with partner teams, and have real influence over how foundational systems evolve.

A Typical Day:

• Design, build, and operate backend services and APIs that are core dependencies across Airbnb's platform
• Lead multi-engineer projects end-to-end, from problem definition through rollout and operations
• Improve the reliability and scalability of systems that handle account data and events at high volume
• Partner with engineering teams across the company to plan and safely execute changes to shared infrastructure
• Mentor other engineers and help raise the bar on code quality, testing, and operational excellence

Your Expertise:

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with experience owning production services end-to-end
• Strong fundamentals in distributed systems, including messaging/eventing, data consistency, and service reliability patterns
• Experience building and operating high-traffic backend services
• Track record of leading ambiguous, multi-month projects from problem definition through delivery
• Experience driving technical decisions across team boundaries
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, especially for technical design and cross-team coordination

Your Location:

This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While the position is Remote Eligible, you must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from.

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.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Airbnb values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Airbnb are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic.

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.

Pay Range

$196,000-$227,000 USD

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.