Staff Software Engineer, Developer Infra (Python)

airbnb, Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Airbnb is searching for a Staff Software Engineer specializing in Developer Infrastructure. The role involves optimizing build performance and scaling developer workflows using Python and Bazel in a collaborative environment. Candidates should have extensive industry experience and a strong focus on enhancing developer productivity across the organization.

Benefits

Employee Travel Credits

Equity

Comprehensive benefits package

Qualifications

• 9+ years of industry experience, preferably with large-scale systems.
• Familiar with container and orchestration technologies.

Responsibilities

• Build technical strategy and evolve Airbnb's developer infrastructure.
• Deliver frameworks that are secure, efficient, and highly available.

Skills

Python

Bazel

Debugging

Communication

Problem Solving

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Staff Software Engineer, Developer Infra (Python)

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:

Dev Infra’s mission is to enable Airbnb developers to develop, merge and release high quality code quickly and reliably. This team works on infrastructure that enable Airbnb developers to be productive across all stages of the software development lifecycle.

The Difference You Will Make:

We're building cloud-based developer environments, blazing-fast build systems, and a polyglot monorepo that serves as a home for all infrastructure-authored code. You'll drive technical strategy, lead by example in writing high-leverage infrastructure code, and influence the direction of our Python and Bazel-based polyglot monorepo strategy. You’ll partner closely with engineers across the Infra org, AI/ML community, Developer Platform, and broader Airbnb engineering community to reduce friction in daily development workflows — from source control and build systems to IDE responsiveness and code review tooling.

A Typical Day:

We’re looking for an engineer with deep expertise in Python, Bazel, and infrastructure development in large-scale monorepo environments—someone who can build robust tools, optimize build performance, and scale developer workflows across the organization.

In this role you will be:

Responsible for building the technical strategy and evolving Airbnb’s developer infrastructure that directly moves our core metrics (Developer Experience, Developer Velocity, Debuggability, Resilience and Reliability) while reducing cost.

Partnering with engineering leaders across all Airbnb teams for adoption of the new capabilities. Your customers will be all engineers at Airbnb.

A player/coach of our high-performance team to ensure code quality, commitment to craft and operational excellence

• Deliver frameworks and platforms that are secure, efficient, mature and highly available that abstract away infrastructure complexity.
• Work with other talented and friendly infrastructure engineers to build the foundation for Airbnb’s technical growth over the next decade.

Your Expertise:

• 9+ years of industry experience (and/or relevant academic experience)
• Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree, preferably in CS, or equivalent experience
• Experience leading and shipping large scope technical projects in collaboration with multiple experienced engineers.
• You are a full-cycle developer: strong ownership and experience building and operating high-scale, distributed systems across the full software life cycle.
• Familiarity with container and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• You have excellent communication skills and the ability to work well within a team and across engineering teams.
• You are a strong problem solver and have solid debugging skills.
• You are passionate about developer productivity and making developer lives better.

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.