Staff Software Engineer

Summary

Join Airbnb's Payments Risk team as a Staff Software Engineer and play a critical role in designing and building systems to combat payment fraud. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, provide technical leadership, and mentor engineers. This role requires 9+ years of software development experience, including 5+ years in payments or financial technology. You'll need expertise in Java, Kotlin, or Scala, and experience with large-scale distributed systems. The position offers the opportunity for significant impact, growth, and collaboration within a passionate team. This is a US-remote eligible position with a competitive salary and potential for bonus, equity, benefits, and employee travel credits.

Requirements

• 9+ years of software development experience, with at least 5 years in payments or financial technology domains
• Strong understanding of payment fraud detection, chargebacks, and global payment processing flows (e.g., credit cards, bank transfers, e-wallets)
• Proven experience designing and deploying large-scale distributed systems with a focus on scalability, reliability, and maintainability
• Proficiency in Java, Kotlin, and/or Scala, with familiarity in asynchronous programming models (e.g., events, callbacks, promises)
• Expertise in designing APIs, building RESTful services, and integrating message queuing and data streaming frameworks
• Deep experience with relational databases, caching solutions, and service-oriented architecture
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional initiatives

Responsibilities

• Design and lead the implementation of complex, scalable systems to detect and mitigate payment fraud effectively
• Collaborate across teams, aligning architecture, dependencies, and shared goals with stakeholders in Product, Machine Learning, Finance, and Operations
• Provide technical leadership, making high-impact decisions balancing technical trade-offs and business objectives
• Mentor engineers at various levels, fostering technical growth and a culture of excellence within the team
• Drive the technical roadmap, aligning immediate projects with long-term organizational goals and addressing technical debt thoughtfully
• Lead the architecture and design of a scalable, distributed system for fraud detection and mitigation
• Collaborate with Machine Learning engineers to integrate predictive models into real-time detection pipelines
• Partner with Product and Design teams to improve anomaly detection workflows and enhance user verification processes
• Work with Engineering teams across Airbnb to define and implement shared standards for fraud detection and mitigation systems
• Mentor team members through design reviews, code walkthroughs, and knowledge-sharing sessions

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Machine Learning applications in fraud detection
• Familiarity with workflow frameworks and anomaly detection systems
• Background in agile development and continuous delivery pipelines

Benefits

• Bonus
• Equity
• Benefits
• Employee Travel Credits