Senior Software Engineer, Airbnb

Trust

Salary not provided
Senior and Expert level
Remote in US

More information about location

Airbnb

Community marketplace for holiday accomodation

Be an early applicant

Airbnb

Community marketplace for holiday accomodation

1001+ employees

B2CHospitalityB2BTravelMarketplaceSharing Economy

Be an early applicant

Salary not provided
Senior and Expert level
Remote in US

More information about location

1001+ employees

B2CHospitalityB2BTravelMarketplaceSharing Economy

Company mission

To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere.

Role

Who you are

  • If you're passionate about developing cutting-edge solutions that drive positive impacts on a global scale, join us on this exciting journey to foster a safer and more trustworthy Airbnb community!
  • If you're excited about making a tangible difference by revolutionizing our vendor collaborations, and if you have a passion for exploring innovative technologies, this is the perfect opportunity for you to leave a lasting impact on our organization while driving progress in the realm of Identity management!
  • 6+ years industry experience
  • Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree, preferably in CS, or equivalent experience
  • Experience in building and scaling high-quality and high-traffic products (or systems)
  • Ability to evaluate technical approaches and design product solutions to solve real-world problems
  • Ability to drive alignment, manage projects and effectively collaborate with stakeholders
  • Mentorship to junior developers
  • Experience in fraud prevention or identity systems

What the job involves

  • Join our team at Airbnb and play a crucial role in enhancing transparency and trust within our global community! We pride ourselves on using identity verification as a powerful tool to build trust among our users
  • This team works with design, product, privacy/legal, operations, and other engineering teams to verify users are who they say they are and build trust on the platform
  • As advancements in AI and digital technologies evolve, traditional identity verification methods are becoming less reliable, making it crucial to enhance our approach. To maintain trust and safety on the platform and to stay ahead of industry trends and technological advancements, we must incorporate new and more effective verification methods
  • As part of our team, you will be at the forefront of developing the next generation of identity verification methods, addressing the growing need for robust methods that can adapt to new challenges
  • Your innovative work will empower users to confidently showcase their authenticity, ultimately enhancing security and trust for all users during their booking experiences
  • While Airbnb started with individual hosts on the platform, as of today, a significant portion of our hosts are professional hosts who operate as an organization
  • Traditionally, our ID verification focused on verifying individual users and does not support verifying businesses. However, with the emerging regulatory requirements for businesses and to ensure that all hosts can be verified, we are investing in capabilities to represent and verify businesses as first class citizens on our platform
  • As part of our team, you'll be at the forefront of creating the next generation of identity verification, which will empower new user segments, such as businesses, co-travelers, and co-hosts, to verify their legitimacy to end-users
  • By introducing business verification, you'll significantly contribute to establishing trust and enhancing security for guests during their booking experiences
  • As part of our team, your primary mission will be to enhance our existing systems by identifying and incorporating new user signals to ensure integrity of all identity verification
  • You'll have the exciting opportunity to collaborate directly with our operations team, gaining valuable insights into emerging fraud trends and optimize our detection strategies to minimize identity misuse
  • Your contributions will be instrumental in reducing fraud and preventing safety incidents, ensuring that our platform remains a safe and trustworthy environment for all users
  • Airbnb relies on numerous vendors to help verify the user identity on our platform. While our vendors are a critical part of our defenses, there are opportunities to streamline and optimize how we leverage our vendors to both reduce the cost and reliance on vendors for core capabilities
  • As a key member of our team, you'll take charge of leading high-impact initiatives aimed at unlocking substantial cost savings while improving effectiveness of our vendors
  • Your responsibilities will include streamlining integration processes, conducting consistent performance evaluations, and ensuring a seamless and efficient workflow
  • Additionally, we envision a future where ML, Computer Vision, and AI technologies play a significant role in reducing our dependence on external vendors. You'll have the exciting chance to spearhead initiatives to invest in and implement these cutting-edge technologies, shaping the future of our Identity pipeline
  • Work on systems at scale with large data sets, build and continuously improve applications for Airbnb product, business and operational use cases
  • Work collaboratively with cross-functional partners including software engineers, product managers, operations and data scientists, identify opportunities for business impact, understand, refine, and prioritize requirements for engineering systems, drive engineering decisions, and quantify impact
  • Hands-on prototype, develop, productionize, and test solutions and defenses to existing and emerging fraud trends

Our take

When Airbnb was originally founded, the product helped customers book air mattresses on people's apartment floors. Since then, Airbnb has had over a billion customers hosted through its platform. With more than 4 million registered hosts worldwide, it has grown into a major player in the hospitality sector.

Airbnb has been successful in disrupting the traditional holiday lettings sector. Before it existed accommodation was limited to hotels and bed and breakfasts, but Airbnb has mainstreamed the idea of renting out spare rooms or even entire homes. It has created a new sector of hosts purchasing properties to rent out on the platform and provides a level of flexibility and a range of offerings not previously possible for travelers.

Perhaps a victim of its own success, by 2022 supply of Airbnb-listed properties began to outstrip demand in some markets, as hosts overestimated the appetite for domestic travel. However, the company is still posting strong financials and has unveiled new tools to support its hosts in a tougher rental market. With a healthy bottom line and a huge user base, Airbnb is very likely to overcome the current market turbulence and continue its growth.

Kirsty headshot

Kirsty

Company Specialist

Insights

Top investors

Some candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

25% employee growth in 12 months

Company

Funding (last 2 of 10 rounds)

Apr 2020

$500m

GROWTH EQUITY VC

Mar 2017

$447.8m

SERIES F

Total funding: $3.8bn

Company benefits

  • Paid volunteer time
  • Health food and snacks
  • Generous parental and family leave
  • Learning and development
  • Annual travel and experiences credit

Company values

  • Champion the Mission: We’re united with our community to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere
  • Be a Host: We're caring, open, and encouraging to everyone we work with
  • Embrace the Adventure: We’re driven by curiosity, optimism, and the belief that every person can grow
  • Be a Cereal Entrepreneur: We’re determined and creative in transforming our bold ambitions into reality

Company HQ

Showplace Square, San Francisco, CA

Leadership

Brian Chesky

(Co-Founder & CEO)

Previously an Industrial Designer, studying at Rhode Island School of Design.

Nathan Blecharczyk

(Co-Founder & CSO)

Studied Computer Science at Harvard, and had around 4 years of professional Software Engineering experience before founding Airbnb, including interning at Microsoft.

Joe Gebbia

(Co-Founder)

Also studied Industrial Design at Rhode Island, and previously founded various design-related startups

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