Used Tools & Technologies
Machine LearningRequired Skills & Competences
Tag name is followed by "@" symbol and proficiency level value.
About proficiency levels:
- 1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;
- 3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;
- 7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;
- 10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.
Docker @ 3
Kubernetes @ 3
GCP @ 3
JVM @ 7
Leadership @ 7
AWS @ 3
Azure @ 3
Communication @ 7
Mentoring @ 6
GPU @ 4
Observability @ 4
AI @ 4
Profiling @ 4
- 1-2 — basic awareness. Minimal hands-on experience, and a rudimentary understanding of the technology's purpose;
- 3-6 — daily use. Comfortable and regular usage, capable of handling common tasks and challenges related to the technology;
- 7-9 — you are an expert, you can teach others, you know all the pitfalls and tricks;
- 10 — exceptional knowledge, comprehensive understanding, and adeptness in all aspects of the technology, including advanced problem-solving. Think twice before claiming or demanding such level.
Details
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 Infrastructure Performance team exists to make sure that growth doesn't come at the cost of speed, reliability, or efficiency. We treat performance as a first-class engineering property - measurable, continuously improving, and enforced across the software lifecycle. The team owns performance across the full stack: CPU and GPU fleet utilization, backend service efficiency, end-to-end request latency, storage, ML infrastructure, and observability. They instrument and profile at scale, discover hot paths, shape how teams across the company think about performance SLOs, and influence build vs. buy decisions on hardware and software. The team also builds tooling to let backend teams self-serve performance insights.
Why this role is unusual
Most performance engineering roles are reactive: triage a regression, close the ticket. This role is different: you'll set the strategy, define what "good" looks like, and build systems that make performance a default property of how Airbnb ships software. You'll operate at both systems and organizational levels and shape how the company thinks about performance.
Responsibilities
- Define and drive Airbnb's long-term performance strategy, spanning product performance, infrastructure efficiency, and business objectives for scale and growth
- Lead the architecture and development of performance profiling and instrumentation infrastructure covering CPU, GPU, memory, request hot paths, utilization, and deployment events, making these capabilities available to all backend teams
- Partner with infrastructure teams across compute, reliability, backend frameworks, and AI infra to ensure the fleet operates at optimal utilization
- Connect performance outcomes to business objectives and company-wide SLOs, and guide engineering teams in keeping the stack scalable and efficient
- Evaluate emerging hardware and software technologies, engage with the external solutions ecosystem, and advise on build vs. buy decisions in areas of strategic importance
- Mentor and technically uplevel engineers across the organization through design reviews, architectural guidance, and performance best practices
Requirements (About you)
- 12+ years of performance engineering experience in high-scale, high-growth production environments
- Deep understanding of how software and hardware systems interact at scale, including architectural patterns for performance-critical stacks; comfortable in the kernel and in the JVM
- Strong familiarity with public cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Experience with profiling and instrumentation tooling across CPU, GPU, memory, and distributed request tracing
- Demonstrated ability to define performance objectives and drive delivery against company-wide SLOs across multiple organizations
- Experience influencing teams that don't report to you, making the case for long-term investments, and mentoring engineers
- Strong communication and influence skills; comfortable driving technical direction with senior engineering and product leadership
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.
Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging
Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We strive to provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you require reasonable accommodation to submit an application, contact [email protected] with your full name, the role you’re applying for, and the accommodation necessary.
How We'll Take Care of You
Base pay depends on factors such as training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.
Pay Range
$292,000—$365,000 USD
Offices
United States