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Airbnb Staff Software Engineer, Payments (AirCover Insurance Platform) Recruitment 2026: Apply Online
Staff Software Engineer, Payments (AirCover Insurance Platform)
Job Overview
About the Role
Airbnb is seeking a highly experienced and motivated Staff Software Engineer to join the AirCover Insurance Platform team. This is a pivotal role where you will lead the technical vision and execution for critical systems that underpin Airbnb’s insurance products. You will be responsible for designing and evolving the architecture of subsystems that manage policies, coverage, enrollment, and regional rules, as well as the experimentation capabilities that drive product adoption. As a Staff Engineer, you are expected to be a technical leader, a player-coach, and a key influencer across multiple teams.
The Community You Will Join
The AirCover Insurance Platform team operates at the intersection of technology and insurance, building the foundational systems for AirCover. This includes Host liability insurance, Experiences liability insurance, and Host damage protection. The team’s work enables Airbnb to launch and operate insurance products efficiently across global markets, fostering rapid learning and improvement in host and guest protection. You will collaborate closely with engineering, product, data science, and legal partners across Airbnb’s global hubs.
What Kind of Software Engineer Are We Looking For?
We are looking for a seasoned Staff Engineer with a proven track record in designing and building complex, high-scale backend systems. You should possess the ability to establish technical direction, deliver robust solutions, and raise the bar for technical excellence. Your responsibilities will include:
- Leading the design of future-state architecture to enable seamless expansion of AirCover to new regions and products.
- Designing an experimentation framework for insurance offers, pricing, and placement, ensuring trustworthy measurement of outcomes.
- Providing technical leadership to engineers within and outside your team, owning significant scope through ambiguity.
- Engaging proactively with product managers, designers, data scientists, and legal partners to shape requirements and guide teams toward efficient solutions.
- Championing technical quality through design, code reviews, and production operations.
- Mentoring engineers and fostering a collaborative environment.
- Exploring and applying emerging technologies, such as LLMs, to enhance automation and user experience.
A Typical Day
Your day-to-day activities will involve a blend of strategic thinking and hands-on execution:
- Writing and reviewing designs and code for high-availability, distributed backend services.
- Making critical architectural trade-offs and scaling services in a regulated, multi-region environment with stringent audit, privacy, and data-integrity requirements.
- Analyzing data to identify conversion and coverage gaps, translating insights into actionable product and platform changes.
- Partnering with Product, Data Science, Data Engineering, Legal, and platform teams to drive engineering decisions and influence strategic outcomes.
- Presenting technical and product deep dives to stakeholders and leadership.
Your Expertise
To be successful in this role, you should possess the following qualifications:
- 9+ years of relevant software development experience in a fast-paced tech environment, or 7+ years with an advanced degree.
- Expertise in backend systems within large-scale, service-oriented architectures.
- Real-world experience in at least one of the following languages: Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, or similar.
- Experience designing multi-region or multi-tenant platforms with configurable, rules-driven behavior.
- Experience with A/B testing and experimentation systems, and using data to improve conversion or attach rates.
- Proficiency in designing and operating high-performance systems with reliable monitoring and logging.
- Working knowledge of relational databases and SQL.
- Good judgment in balancing short-term business needs with long-term technical quality.
- Experience in insurance, payments, fintech, or other regulated domains is a significant plus.
- Hands-on technical leadership across multiple teams, with excellent communication skills for both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging
Airbnb is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We believe that a wide range of perspectives fuels innovation and engagement, enabling us to create the best products and services. All qualified individuals are strongly encouraged to apply.
Compensation and Benefits
The actual base pay for this role will depend on various factors, including training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs, and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change. This position may also be eligible for bonus, equity, comprehensive benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.
Reasonable Accommodations
Airbnb is committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities. If you require assistance or an accommodation, please inform your recruiter once you are contacted about a role.
Note on Recruiting Scams
Be aware of potential recruiting scams. Airbnb’s official open roles are always posted on careers.airbnb.com, and recruiters communicate exclusively from @airbnb.com or @ext.airbnb.com email addresses. Airbnb recruiters will never ask for sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers, bank details, or passport information, nor will they request payment or ask you to purchase equipment during the interview process.
Key Job Details
| Company Name | Airbnb |
| Job Role | Staff Software Engineer, Payments (AirCover Insurance Platform) |
| Experience | 9+ years |
| Salary Range | Competitive, based on experience and market demand. May include bonus, equity, and benefits. |
| Job Type | Private |
| Work Mode | Likely Hybrid or Office-based (specifics may vary by location) |
| Openings | |
| Job Location | United States |
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the design and evolution of core subsystems for insurance policies, coverage, enrollment, and regional rules.
- Establish the technical vision and deliver flexible, always-available, auditable, and scalable solutions.
- Design the future-state architecture for expanding AirCover to new regions and products.
- Lead the design of an experimentation framework for insurance offers, pricing, and placement.
- Lead engineers inside and outside the team in building solutions and act as the technical lead/owner.
- Engage with product managers, designers, data scientists, and legal partners to shape requirements.
- Raise the bar for technical quality from design through production operations.
- Mentor engineers and foster collaboration across multiple teams.
- Apply emerging technologies, including LLMs, to improve automation and user experience.
- Write and review designs and code for high-availability, distributed backend services.
- Make architectural trade-offs and scale services in a regulated, multi-region environment.
- Analyze data to identify gaps in conversion and coverage and drive product/platform changes.
- Partner with cross-functional teams to drive engineering decisions and influence outcomes.
- Present technical and product deep dives to stakeholders and leadership.
Requirements & Qualifications
- 9+ years of relevant software development experience in a fast-paced tech environment (or 7+ with an advanced degree).
- Expertise in backend systems in large-scale, service-oriented architectures.
- Real-world experience in at least one of Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, or similar.
- Experience designing multi-region or multi-tenant platforms with configurable, rules-driven behavior.
- Experience with A/B testing and experimentation systems.
- Experience using data to improve conversion or attach rates.
- Proficiency designing and operating high-performance systems with reliable monitoring and logging.
- Working knowledge of relational databases and SQL.
- Good judgment in balancing short-term business needs with long-term technical quality.
- Hands-on technical leadership across multiple teams.
- Excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
Required Skills
- Backend Development
- Distributed Systems Design
- Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
- System Architecture
- Scalability
- High Availability
- Fault Tolerance
- Java / Kotlin / Python / Go
- Database Management (SQL)
- A/B Testing & Experimentation
- Data Analysis
- Technical Leadership
- Mentorship
- Cross-functional Collaboration
- Problem Solving
- Regulated Environments
- Insurance / Fintech (Plus)
About Airbnb
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. Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible, believing that diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions.
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