Staff Experience Designer

Airbnb; London (KY); Remote; USD 149,000 - 186,000; Full time

Job summary

Airbnb seeks an experienced Staff Experience Designer to shape product experiences across global markets. You will partner with writers, researchers, product specialists, and engineers to craft visually compelling, accessible experiences that scale across regions.

You will drive a high bar for visual and interaction design craft, lead design direction, and mentor teams while collaborating across time zones. This IC role reports to a Manager or Director of Experience Design.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in design or related field.
• 10+ years of design leadership experience.
• Excellent visual and interaction design craft.
• Defines the design direction and leads others through it.
• Ability to scope work and motivate teams to transform a product.
• Navigate ambiguity and set vision/strategy for global products.
• Think beyond pixels and design for offline experiences.
• Experience presenting to senior stakeholders and influencing decisions.

Responsibilities

• Support and shape the evolution of the Airbnb platform from a design perspective, ensuring consistency with brand and product architecture.
• Collaborate with PMs, engineers, data scientists, researchers and writers to define problems, map user flows, prototype interactions, and launch new products and services.
• Lead through influence, defining process/timeline and solving complex problems with cross-functional teams.

Skills

Design Leadership

UI/UX Design

Systems Thinking

Stakeholder Management

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Figma

FigJam

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:

As a Staff Experience Designer, you will partner with supporting disciplines such as writers, researchers, product specialists and engineers to build beautiful, usable, forward-looking products that empower people. Our design charter is to help foster an emotional connection with our community, keeping usability and accessibility as our prime virtues. We do our best to practice inclusive design at every turn, spanning both the online and offline experiences we create for our community.

The difference you will make:

As a Staff Experience Designer in London, you will play a critical role in shaping how Airbnb shows up in markets across EMEA, Latin America, and APAC. You will help ensure our global products feel truly local—adapting core experiences to regional needs while feeding market insights back into the broader product strategy. Sitting at the intersection of product, design, and regional strategy, you will work across time zones and functions to define and deliver an international roadmap that spans both tactical UI improvements and larger strategic bets. You will bring a high bar for visual and interaction design craft, model AI-enabled ways of working, and provide senior design leadership in a space that is growing in complexity and impact for Airbnb globally. The Staff Experience Designer is an individual contributor (IC) role that will report to a Manager or Director of Experience Design.

A typical day:

• Support and shape the evolution of the Airbnb platform from a design perspective; ensure consistency with, and contribute to, our brand architecture and product architecture.
• Partner with Product Managers, Engineers, Data Scientist, Researchers and Writers to define problems & goals, map user flows, prototype interactions, and launch new products and services.
• Influence leadership decision making through a clear point of view and define and solve highly complex problems autonomously.
• Provide indirect leadership and mentorship for a team of designers through the end-to-end interaction and visual design of products and services for a global audience.
• Anticipate business challenges and independently create product solutions. Indirectly lead the work of a team of talented designers, writers, program managers, researchers, product managers and engineers as the defacto creative director of innovative projects
• Build strong relationships with leaders inside and outside of core product teams; strong communication and executive stakeholder management skills.
• Have a keen understanding of the technological, business and user opportunities and constraints.
• Scopes project work (in partnership with PMs and engineers) and helps define the design process and timeline.

Your expertise:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and progressive experience
• Designer/Design Leader with 10+ years of experience.
• Excellent visual and interaction skills and craft.
• Defines the design direction and process and can lead others through it.
• Can accurately scope their work as well as their teammate's.
• Can effortlessly motivate and drive small to medium teams to transform a product.
• Demonstrated ability to help a team navigate ambiguity, set vision, and set strategy for global products.
• Systems-thinker with the ability to think beyond the pixels and design for offline experiences.
• Experience with making complex information, tools, and services easily digestible for your audience.
• Strong storytelling, presentation, communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience designing platforms and systems.
• Experience managing and collaborating with research and writing disciplines.
• 0 to 1 experience or experience redesigning major elements of product, experience or service design.

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. Click here for the up-to-date list of excluded states. 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.

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 shown below is annualized, 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.

United Kingdom Annual Pay Range

£112,000 — £140,000 GBP

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.