Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Payments

Details

Airbnb was born in 2007 and has grown into a global marketplace connecting millions of hosts and guests. The Payments organization is responsible for settling money across Airbnb’s marketplace and making the payments experience intuitive, secure, and delightful. The Payments Modeling team focuses on introducing intelligence and personalization to optimize transaction flows, collect payments, distribute payouts, and prevent fraud.

Responsibilities

• Transform AI innovation (LLM-powered workflows, realtime fraud defenses, hyper-personalized checkout flows) into production systems at global scale.
• Architect, own, and operate end-to-end solutions with low latency and high reliability; set technical standards for model governance and continuous learning.
• Spearhead LLM agents, realtime anomaly detectors, and other production AI/ML solutions that solve real-world problems and create product value.
• Collaborate closely with product, software, operations, and data science teams to translate complex requirements into latency-first services and measurable business metrics.
• Design, train, deploy, and operate large-scale AI applications for both batch and streaming workloads, including automated monitoring and retraining loops.
• Mentor and inspire teammates; foster a collaborative, experimentation-driven environment that bridges research and production engineering.

Requirements

• 5+ years of industry experience in applied AI/ML; MS or PhD in a relevant field preferred.
• Strong programming skills in Python and Java and solid data engineering capabilities.
• Proven mastery of modern AI/LLM workflows: prompt engineering, fine-tuning (LoRA, RLHF), hallucination mitigation, safety guardrails, and rigorous online/offline testing to minimize drift.
• Hands-on experience with at least three of the following: PyTorch/TensorFlow, scalable inference stacks, vector search, orchestration/MLOps platforms (Kubeflow, Airflow), large-scale data streaming & processing (Spark, Ray, Kafka).
• Demonstrated success designing, deploying, and monitoring production AI systems (e.g., personalization engines, generative content services) with drift/cost/latency monitoring and automated retraining triggers.
• Prior experience or knowledge of AI/ML applications in the Payments domain is highly desirable.

Location

• This position is US - Remote Eligible. You must live in a U.S. state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed with your manager.

Compensation

• Base pay range: $191,000—$223,000 USD.
• The role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.