[Remote] Staff Backend Engineer - Ads Platform

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Airbnb is a global platform that connects hosts and guests for unique stays and experiences. The Staff Backend Engineer on the Ads Platform team will lead the technical strategy and execution of AI-powered marketing systems, focusing on optimizing paid campaigns across various channels.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for the agentic Growth Engine — making architecture decisions on the systems that generate creatives, optimize bids and budgets, and manage audiences across Google, Meta, and other paid channels
• Write and review code hands-on, establishing engineering standards for quality, availability, and system health across the platform
• Partner directly with Marketing, Product, and Design to translate growth objectives into platform capabilities, and to define the human-in-the-loop controls that keep autonomous campaigns safe and on-brand
• Advance the AI-assisted → agentic → autonomous roadmap, identifying where to introduce automation next and de-risking it through experimentation and staged rollout
• Mentor engineers and act as a force multiplier — leveling up the team through design reviews, technical guidance, and a collaborative, inclusive culture
• Collaborate with ML/AI and data platform teams on the models and signals that feed campaign optimization, and integrate deeply with the Airbnb product to understand the customer journey

Skills

• 9+ years of experience in a hands-on software engineering role
• Bachelor's and/or Master's degree, preferably in CS, or equivalent experience
• Technical leadership: hands on experience leading project teams, setting technical direction and strategy and mentoring engineers
• Passionate about efficiency, availability, technical quality and system quality
• Passion to level-up those around you through curiosity and fostering a collaborative and inclusive team environment
• Proven experience in defining product/technical strategy and driving alignment with cross-functional leaders and stakeholders
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with experience driving initiatives that span across teams, departments and leadership
• Hands-on experience with paid advertising platforms (Meta, Google, or similar) — you understand how the ecosystem works, not just the engineering surface

Company Overview

Company H1B Sponsorship