Software Engineer
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
As a Senior Backend Software Engineer, your expertise will be pivotal in building and scaling the infrastructure that underpins Airbnb's media platform. You will design and implement backend systems that process, store, and serve media assets with high reliability and performance. Your work will directly enable product teams across Airbnb to build richer, more engaging experiences for hosts and guests.
You will have early ownership opportunities in areas such as:
- Building capabilities to trigger ML/AI analysis on media assets, store extracted metadata, and serve results to downstream teams-enabling richer, smarter experiences for hosts and guests
- Driving initiatives to reduce infrastructure costs through in-house image transformations, storage optimizations, and vendor consolidation
- Amplifying the capabilities of our platform in serving images, videos, and additional media types, shaping the cutting-edge media capabilities at Airbnb
If you thrive at the intersection of infrastructure and product impact, and enjoy solving complex distributed systems challenges at scale, this role is for you.
A Typical Day:
- Design, develop, and maintain backend services and data pipelines that power media ingestion, processing, and serving at Airbnb scale
- Build platform capabilities that enable ML/AI teams to trigger analysis workflows, store extracted metadata, and access media intelligence across product surfaces
- Work closely with engineers from product teams across Airbnb, understanding their media needs and building self-serve solutions to address them
- Continuously optimize and improve the performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency of existing media infrastructure
- Stay current with industry trends in distributed systems, media processing, ML infrastructure, and workflow orchestration frameworks
- Mentor and guide team members in their career development, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in backend software engineering, with strong foundations in building and operating large-scale distributed systems, and demonstrated experience with media-related technologies (image processing, video transcoding, or metadata management)
- Experience building data pipelines, batch processing systems, or platforms that support ML/AI workflows is highly valued
- Proficiency in Java, Kotlin, or similar backend languages, with experience designing APIs and data models
- Excellent collaboration and communication abilities, with a track record of partnering effectively with cross-functional teams including other ML/AI infra experts
Benefits & conditions
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., 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
$191,000-$223,000 USD
