Staff Systems Engineer, Infrastructure, BizTech

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 Community You Will Join

Our BizTech Systems Engineering Team is responsible for architecting, building, and managing Airbnb's corporate infrastructure, ensuring high availability, scalability, and reliability across a variety of platforms. BizTech enables smooth operations that empower Airbnb's broader teams to deliver world-class offerings.

The Difference You Will Make

As a Staff Systems Engineer you will drive initiatives that span organizational boundaries and elevate the operation and scalability of our systems infrastructure. You will influence stakeholders, deliver durable solutions, and establish operational excellence within BizTech.

Responsibilities

• Infrastructure Development: design and maintain scalable infrastructure using containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) and infrastructure automation tools (Terraform, ArgoCD) as well as other legacy infrastructure. Develop workflows and CI/CD pipelines, enhance efficiency and reliability, and create technical documentation, runbooks, and training materials.
• Operational Excellence: respond to operational incidents and security vulnerabilities, perform root cause analyses, and implement system improvements.
• Strategic Vision: develop roadmaps and OKRs to align the technical roadmap with Airbnb’s priorities, ensuring durable and scalable technical solutions.
• Cross-functional Engagement: collaborate across teams, mentor ICs and junior staff, share knowledge, and align technical work with business objectives.

Requirements / Your Expertise

• 9+ years of systems engineering experience managing Linux and Windows infrastructure in cloud environments using infrastructure-as-code techniques.
• Broad experience managing Linux and Windows operating systems.
• Expertise with containerization technologies (Docker) and cloud-hosted Kubernetes (EKS/GKE).
• Proficiency in infrastructure automation and IaC (Terraform), Kubernetes package management (Helm), Git-based deployments and ArgoCD, CI/CD (Jenkins), and configuration management (Chef).
• Programming proficiency in one or more of: Python, JavaScript, Ruby, or Go.
• Experience mentoring junior staff and enabling teams to implement technologies.
• Expert-level monitoring and observability skills with Grafana and OpenSearch.
• Experience creating technical documentation, service catalogs, and post-incident reviews.
• Understanding of cost-optimization strategies for configurations or infrastructure transitions.
• Strong knowledge of security and risk assessment methodologies, failure-mode analysis, and designing resilient systems.
• Excellent collaboration and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Experience building durable infrastructure systems that empower teams.

Nice to Have

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (Computer Science, Engineering, or relevant discipline); Ph.D. preferred but not required.
• Deep knowledge of multi-cloud environments (AWS, GCP, OCI, Azure).
• Active participation in technical communities (open-source contributions, speaking, blogging).
• Experience leading diversity and belonging initiatives or mentoring programs.
• Project and/or portfolio management experience using multiple methodologies.

Location

This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed with your manager. You must live in a U.S. state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity (the employer will provide eligibility details). Offices: United States.

Our Commitment to Inclusion & Belonging

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply. Candidates with disabilities who require reasonable accommodation for the application/interview process can contact [email protected] with their full name, the role, and the requested accommodation.

How We'll Take Care of You / Pay Range

Job titles may span more than one career level. Actual base pay depends on training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. This role may be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.

Pay range: $180,000 — $225,000 USD