Staff Software Engineer, Security

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:

Airbnb is built on trust. The data security team’s mission is to keep the data of millions of users secured and protected in our platform while they explore the world.

The Difference You Will Make:

We are seeking a talented and experienced Staff Software Engineer to lead our efforts in identifying, securing, and preventing the leakage of data. This role will involve designing and implementing robust controls to safeguard our data infrastructure while collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure security best practices and privacy compliance. We’d love to talk to you if you’re a talented individual who is passionate about finding security weaknesses and crafting highly scalable solutions. We are enablers who make it easier for engineers to create secure features, not blockers. 

A Typical Day: 

If the mission sounds exciting to you, we have a few different flavors of projects/skill sets that we are looking for in Data Security Team:

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement systems to identify and protect sensitive and personal data.
• Data Protection Platform (DPP): Build the end to end platform to automatically classify the Airbnb data and protect the data based on the classifications with various strategies such as uplevel and scale services for automatic detection for data classification. 
• Contribute to the auto detection of the secret and critical data using advanced machine learning models and Regex patterns for all types of data storages such as Relational and Non-relational databases, Cloud Storage,  Code.
• Design and enforce controls to prevent data leakage across various platforms. Automate security enforcement at scale, collaborate with data platform teams and product teams for data governance best practice, such as Notifications, Call to action, or Access Revocation. 
• Implement Robust access controls, encryption and data masking to protect sensitive data and enable responsible AI/ML. 
• Collaborate with Data Infrastructure to design and build complex back end architecture that are both performative and scalable to provide a deep understanding of the risk of all Airbnb data, such as data ownership, data access, and data lineage etc
• Build the platform to manage all the 3rd-party vendors integrated with the Airbnb platform and protect the Airbnb user data shared with vendors
• Build and maintain scalable data infrastructure, leveraging AWS cloud technologies. Find opportunities to expand DLP coverage on AWS-Corp, Azure, GCP and OCI. 
• Collaborate with security teams to ensure compliance with data protection regulations.
• Integrate AI/ML into security practices to bring greater contextual awareness and wherever possible. E.g. Leverage LLMs for advanced data discovery and classification, data security incident response etc.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to data security and infrastructure.

Check out project examples in technical blogs:

• Personal Data Classification
• Automating Data Protection at Scale, Part 1
• Automating Data Protection at Scale, Part 2
• Automating Data Protection at Scale, Part 3
• Where S Waldo S W 2-  Building Data Discovery And Classification At Scale

Your Expertise:

The following are some examples of profiles that are relevant to us. If a subset of these things apply to you, please consider applying. We are looking to build a team of both specialists in security and generalists in software engineering.

• 9+ years of software development or job related work experience.
• Prior experience in data loss prevention or related security fields.
• Knowledge of data classification, encryption, and compliance frameworks.
• Working knowledge of cloud computing (AWS), GCP, or Azure is a plus. 
• Prior experience with Airflow is a plus. 
• Significant experience in at least one of the following programming languages: Java, Kotlin, Python.
• Significant experience in any of the following: Generalist Backend, Data Engineering, or Security Engineer experience. 
• AI/ML experience is a plus.
• Experience finding ways to enable other engineers to develop secure products by default without requiring security expertise.
• Significant experience in building robust internal products/tools or production backend services at scale is a plus.
• Defensive security experience, shipping projects that mitigate application or infrastructure risks at scale is a plus

Your 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. Click here for the up-to-date list of excluded states. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from. 

Our 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: reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com. 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.

How We'll Take Care of You:

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$204,000—$255,000 USD