Staff Backend Engineer - Ads Platform

Role Description

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Ads Platform team, you will lead the technical strategy and hands-on execution of Airbnb's next-generation, AI-powered Growth Engine for paid channels (Google, Meta, and beyond). You will architect systems that autonomously manage the full lifecycle of paid campaigns — creative generation and rotation, bidding and budget optimization, audience management, and feed intelligence — at scale. Success looks like measurable gains in marketing efficiency (ROAS/CAC) and campaign velocity as we advance the platform along its AI-assisted → agentic → autonomous maturity curve, with the quality, brand safety, and human-in-the-loop controls that let us operate autonomously with confidence.

A Typical Day

• 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.

Qualifications

• 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.
• Bonus - Hands-on experience with paid advertising platforms (Meta, Google, or similar) — you understand how the ecosystem works, not just the engineering surface.

Location

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.

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: View email address on us.fitly.work. 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.

Benefits

• 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

$212,000 — $265,000 USD