Staff Software Engineer, Compute Data Plane

at Airbnb
USD 204,000-255,000 per year
SENIOR
✅ Remote

SCRAPED

Used Tools & Technologies

Not specified

Required Skills & Competences ?

Security @ 4 Chef @ 4 Go @ 6 Kubernetes @ 4 Linux @ 7 Ruby @ 6 Distributed Systems @ 4 Bash @ 6 Communication @ 7 Debugging @ 4 Puppet @ 4 Salt @ 4 GPU @ 7

Details

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, growing to over 5 million hosts who have welcomed over 2 billion guest arrivals globally. Hosts offer unique stays and experiences enabling authentic community connections.

Responsibilities

  • Architect and operate scalable infrastructure on top of public cloud services, integrating new cloud provider features.
  • Build and extend infrastructure for fleet health monitoring and automated remediation across thousands of Kubernetes nodes.
  • Design and build Kubernetes controllers, operators, and custom tooling to expose cloud-native compute capabilities internally.
  • Collaborate with cloud provider teams and open source communities to adopt and optimize new infrastructure innovations.
  • Work closely with kernel and OS primitives to enhance container security, resource isolation, and performance tuning.
  • Develop CLI and UI tools to improve infrastructure observability and operational ergonomics.
  • Drive rolling upgrades, patch management, and runtime hardening to maintain a secure, stable compute platform.
  • Optimize systems and services for improved performance and efficiency.
  • Improve availability by applying industry and distributed systems best practices.
  • Collaborate with other infrastructure engineers to build foundations for Airbnb’s technical growth.

Requirements

  • 9+ years designing and operating large-scale infrastructure or platform systems.
  • Experience leading large scope projects with multiple engineers.
  • Deep expertise with Kubernetes node components and ecosystem interfaces (kubelet, CRI, CNI, CSI, CDI).
  • Strong Linux kernel and OS internals knowledge focusing on container runtimes, cgroups, namespaces, GPU drivers, and security.
  • Experience managing Kubernetes fleets (1000+ nodes) in public cloud environments.
  • Expertise in building Kubernetes controllers/operators and exposing cloud-native infrastructure features.
  • Skilled with infrastructure management frameworks (Puppet, Chef, Salt or equivalent).
  • Proficient in Go systems programming and Ruby, Bash scripting.
  • Proven record in automation, health monitoring, and self-remediation for compute fleets.
  • Excellent problem-solving and production debugging skills spanning kernel, container runtime, and orchestration layers.
  • Strong collaborator with excellent communication skills.
  • Full-cycle developer mindset with strong ownership and distributed systems experience.

Location

  • US - Remote eligible; must reside in a state where Airbnb has a registered entity.
  • May include occasional office work or offsite attendance.

Benefits

  • Base pay range $204,000 to $255,000 USD.
  • Eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.

Inclusion

  • Airbnb embraces diversity and inclusion,
  • Disability accommodations provided upon request for recruiting process.