Staff Software Engineer, Global Markets (Backend)

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:

The Global Markets Tech team drives the evolution of our guest and host experience across international markets through product innovation that accelerates international growth. Expanding in under-penetrated markets is a core pillar of our company strategy. To achieve this, we innovate at every level - adapting our product to the unique needs of every corner of the globe so that every user across our 220+ countries and regions feels right at home.

The team partners closely with Product, Design, Data Science, regional stakeholders, and core platform/vertical teams to translate local market needs into durable, scalable technology that can be piloted quickly and then rolled out broadly.

• Own technical vision and lead effort to architecture, prototype, build and launch solutions for international markets initiatives (market configuration, localization services, partner integrations, compliance-aware experiences, etc).
• Lead complex, cross-team execution from design through launch, including team roadmap, technical direction, migration plans, rollout strategy, and long-term operability.
• Drive engineering excellence through reliability, performance, security, and cost efficiency.
• Influence roadmaps and collaborate with stakeholders across regions, such as drives alignment, resolves tradeoffs, leads through ambiguity.
• Mentor engineers both within and outside of the team.

• Fluency in English is required. Japanese or Korean working proficiency is a plus.
• 9+ years of professional software engineering experience, including Tech Lead responsibilities (required).
• Proven track record leading end-to-end delivery of high-impact, user-facing products—from technical design and implementation through launch and post-launch operations.
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction for a team or multi-team area (e.g., defining architecture, establishing engineering standards, and shaping a long-term technical roadmap).
• Strong product mindset: you connect technical decisions to customer outcomes and business impact, and you’re comfortable operating in ambiguity with an iterative, experiment-driven approach.
• Expertise designing and operating systems that are highly available, scalable, secure, and cost-efficient, with clear operational readiness.
• Strong experience working in cross-functional, global environments, driving alignment and results through influence across teams and time zones.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop engineers, raise the quality bar through reviews and coaching, and establish and drive best practices.