Airbnb
Staff Backend Engineer - Ads Platform
Remote - USA · Staff+
Sponsorship not specified$212k-$265kDetected 5 hours ago
Machine LearningA/B TestingLeadershipCommunicationCollaborationMentoring
About the role
- 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.
- We sit at the intersection of engineering, marketing, and AI.
Responsibilities
- The Ads Platform team builds the AI-powered growth engine behind Airbnb's paid marketing across Google, Meta, and the broader advertising ecosystem.
- to build increasingly autonomous, AI-driven marketing systems that grow Airbnb's business.
- You'll partner closely with Marketing, Product, and Design, work alongside Airbnb's ML/AI and data platform teams, and integrate deeply with the core product to turn a rich understanding of the customer journey into differentiated, high-performing paid experiences.
- As a Staff Software Engineer on the Ads Platform team, you will lead the technical strategy and hands-on execution of Airbnb's next-generation, AI-powered Growth Engine for paid channels (Google, Meta, and beyond).
- You will architect systems that autonomously manage the full lifecycle of paid campaigns - creative generation and rotation, bidding and budget optimization, audience management, and feed intelligence - at scale.
- 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.
- Set technical direction for the agentic Growth Engine - making architecture decisions on the systems that generate creatives, optimize bids and budgets, and manage audiences across Google, Meta, and other paid channels.
- Partner directly with Marketing, Product, and Design to translate growth objectives into platform capabilities, and to define the human-in-the-loop controls that keep autonomous campaigns safe and on-brand.
- Mentor engineers and act as a force multiplier - leveling up the team through design reviews, technical guidance, and a collaborative, inclusive culture.
- Collaborate with ML/AI and data platform teams on the models and signals that feed campaign optimization, and integrate deeply with the Airbnb product to understand the customer journey.
Requirements
- 9+ years of experience in a hands-on software engineering role.
- Bachelor's and/or Master's degree, preferably in CS, or equivalent experience
- If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from.
- Hands-on experience with paid advertising platforms (Meta, Google, or similar) - you understand how the ecosystem works, not just the engineering surface.
Compensation
- $212,000 - $265,000 USD
- The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.
Benefits
- Write and review code hands-on, establishing engineering standards for quality, availability, and system health across the platform.
- This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.
Company info
- We build the platform and intelligent systems that power paid campaigns - from creative to optimization to audience - at scale across every channel, with a strong commitment to brand safety, quality, and human oversight.
- We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process.
Equal opportunity
- Please include your full name, the role you're applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process.
- If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com.
This listing is sourced directly from Airbnb's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.