--- title: 'Senior Software Engineer, Tech Foundations at Airbnb' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-tech-foundations-airbnb-united-states-sp8ycahr2a4m' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-16' --- # Senior Software Engineer, Tech Foundations at Airbnb - **Company:** Airbnb - **Location:** United States - **Compensation:** $196k–$230k - **Posted:** 2026-09-15 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-16 - **Apply:** https://careers.airbnb.com/positions/8197816?gh_jid=8197816 ## Job description 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: Airbnb’s Service Mesh team sits within Network Platform and is accountable for the infrastructure that makes all service-to-service communication secure, reliable, and observable. You’ll work on a high-impact team that owns the designing, building and operating the critical systems that connect all Airbnb bank-end services, covering service discovery, load balancing, access control, traffic failover, and routing for thousands of applications. Our team also cares deeply about culture. A happy, healthy team is a primary focus for us. We get stuff done - but are also supportive, honest, and we aim to have fun. The Difference You Will Make: As a member of the service mesh team, you will be working with talented engineers on cutting edge technologies of cloud native network stack. You will contribute to the key infrastructure components that connect all Airbnb users and services across the globe. You will have the chance to define and influence large infrastructure initiatives such as global traffic load balancing and disaster recovery, next-gen service mesh, cross-region gateways and edge security etc. Airbnb is a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) end-user community, and we work closely with the open source community (e.g. k8s, istio)  and peer companies to tackle cloud native engineering challenges at scale. You will also have the chance to make an impact on the industry and open source communities. A Typical Day: - Define and deliver the roadmap for mesh capabilities (routing, security, policy, resilience, multi-region failover). - Set and track SLOs/SLAs for availability and performance; drive data-informed improvements. - Build and mentor a strong engineering team; establish engineering excellence, code health, and operational rigor. - Align with Security, Edge/Traffic, Compute, and Developer Platform on cross-cutting initiatives and standards. - Mature incident management, post-incident learning, change management, and safe rollout practices. - Plan capacity and investments to meet growth while optimizing efficiency and cost. Your Expertise: - 5+ years of relevant software development industry experience in a fast paced, high growth tech environment. - Experience running large scale networking systems and software (e.g. Edge proxies, DNS, CDN, network gateways), experience working with istio, Envoy is a plus. - You are a full-cycle developer: strong ownership and experience building and operating  high-scale, distributed systems across the full software life cycle. - You have excellent communication skills and the ability to work well within a team and with teams across the engineering teams. - You are a strong problem solver and have led a team that is on-call for production infrastructure before. - You are passionate about efficiency, availability, technical quality and system quality. Your Location: Remote- USA 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. [Click here](https://careers.airbnb.com/) for the up-to-date list of excluded states. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from. Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging: Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. 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. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview 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. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process. We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application. How We'll Take Care of You: Our job titles may span more than one career level. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits. Pay Range $196,000—$230,000 USD Reasonable Accommodations: We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role. A Note on Recruiting Scams: Scammers sometimes pose as Airbnb recruiters to get money or personal information from candidates. A few things that will always be true for Airbnb’s hiring process: our open roles are posted on Airbnb’s Career’s Page at careers.airbnb.com, and our recruiters correspond only from @[airbnb.com](http://airbnb.com) or @[ext.airbnb.com](http://ext.airbnb.com) email addresses. Our recruiters will never ask for your Social Security number, bank account details, passport, or payment app information while you are interviewing.  We’ll also never ask you to pay a fee, send money, deposit or cash a check, or purchase work-related equipment (such as a company laptop) during the interview process. We encourage candidates to remain vigilant of these recruiting scams and not share sensitive information if you do not believe an individual is actually affiliated with Airbnb. ## About Airbnb ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Airbnb operates a global marketplace for unique stays, experiences, and adventures, connecting hosts with travelers. - **Entity Type**: Public (NASDAQ: ABNB) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: 2007 - **Founders**: Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Online Travel & Hospitality, Software Development - **Target customers**: B2C (travelers), C2C (hosts), with some B2B (Airbnb for Work, business travel) - **Mission or purpose statement**: To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, providing unique travel experiences and economic opportunity for hosts. ## Products & Services - **Airbnb Stays**: The core platform for booking short-term rentals (entire homes, private rooms, shared spaces) in over 220 countries and regions. - **Airbnb Experiences**: Curated, hands-on activities hosted by locals (e.g., cooking classes, guided hikes, workshops). - **Airbnb Adventures**: Multi-day, small-group immersive trips led by local experts. - **Airbnb for Work**: A service for companies to manage business travel and team retreats. - **Luxe**: A premium tier offering vetted, high-end vacation homes with dedicated trip designers. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: ~$77.8B (as of recent data) - **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue of $12.2B (based on available data) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Y Combinator - **Growth Signals**: - **From 2007 to present**: 1.5 billion guest arrivals globally. - **Headcount Growth**: Employs ~21,644 people, a **+30.6% year-over-year increase**. - **Global Reach**: Operates in 176 countries with a strong international team (e.g., offices/employees in India, Italy, Canada, Brazil, UK, Australia, China). - **Public Company Status**: IPO in 2020, trading on NASDAQ. ## Competitive Advantages - **Network Effects**: A massive, global two-sided network of 5 million+ hosts and 1.5 billion arrivals creates a formidable moat that is very difficult for competitors to replicate. - **Brand & Trust**: A globally recognized brand synonymous with alternative accommodations and travel experiences. - **Liquidity & Inventory**: Unrivaled inventory depth across 220+ countries, offering unique stays not found in traditional hotels. - **Live and Work Anywhere Policy**: A radical shift in work culture that offers flexibility and a competitive edge in talent acquisition, allowing employees to live anywhere in their country of employment with no compensation change. ## Strategic Focus - **International & Mainstream Expansion**: Continuing to grow its user base beyond early adopters into mainstream travel and new international markets. - **Product Diversification**: Pushing hard into "Experiences" and "Adventures" to reduce reliance on accommodations and capture more of the travel wallet. - **Leveraging AI & Technology**: Investing in AI (e.g., AI Engineer roles in Community Support) to improve the guest and host experience, search, and trust & safety. - **Return to Travel & "Live Anywhere"**: Capitalizing on the post-pandemic shift towards remote work and long-term stays with its "Live and Work Anywhere" initiative. ## Why Work Here - **Flexibility**: A ground-breaking **"Live and Work Anywhere"** policy. Employees can work from home, an office, or temporarily anywhere in the world (with approval). Compensation is not changed when moving within their country of employment. - **Compelling Mission**: An opportunity to work on a platform that creates connection and economic empowerment for millions of people globally. - **Diversity & Belonging**: Strong commitment to inclusion with numerous Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) such as Able@, Black@, Women@, Parents@, and many more. - **Great Benefits**: - **Travel Credit**: Quarterly Airbnb travel and experiences credit. - **Education**: Annual educational stipend. - **Wellbeing**: Subsidized healthcare, mental health support, family care support, and generous parental leave. - **Equity**: Competitive compensation including equity and an Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP). - **Culture**: Values-driven with a focus on "Be a Host" (caring, open, encouraging), "Champion the Mission," and "Embrace the Adventure." - **Work Model**: Supports a mix of remote, hybrid (be close to an office), and onsite work, giving employees significant control over their schedule. - **Talent Community**: A highly creative and collaborative environment with industry-leading talent. ## Sources 1. [careers.airbnb.com](https://careers.airbnb.com/) 2. [careers.airbnb.com/life-at-airbnb/](https://careers.airbnb.com/life-at-airbnb/) 3. [airbnb.com](https://www.airbnb.com/) 4. [linkedin.com/company/airbnb](https://sg.linkedin.com/company/airbnb) 5. 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