Senior Staff Data Engineer, Foundational Data

Airbnb

. Provide technical leadership across data engineering and analytics engineering work spanning cloud cost, traffic and bots, and infrastructure intelligence .

Posted 9/22/2026full-timeRemote • United StatesSenior💰 $248,000 - $310,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in data engineering and analytics, with a focus on building and maintaining scalable data pipelines, defining data strategies, and influencing cross-functional teams. Proficient in SQL and Python, with a strong ability to design dimensional models and drive data product adoption.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Data Pipeline DesignSQL ProficiencyPython ProgrammingTechnical LeadershipDimensional Modeling

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Data EngineeringData AnalyticsSQLPythonDimensional ModelingData StrategyData Product DevelopmentData Pipeline OperationAI Unit EconomicsAutomated Checks

Soft Skills

Influencing Without AuthorityCross-Organizational Consensus BuildingCoachingConflict ResolutionCommunication

Tools & Technologies

AirflowTelemetryLogsBilling DataGPU Fleet Utilization

Industry Keywords

Data EngineeringAnalytics EngineeringInfrastructure IntelligenceCloud Cost ManagementData Fragmentation

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AirflowCloudPythonScalaSQL

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Provide technical leadership across data engineering and analytics engineering work spanning cloud cost, traffic and bots, and infrastructure intelligence
Define and own the multi-year data strategy and architecture for Airbnb's foundational data assets
Build cross-organizational consensus to fund and execute the data strategy
Own measurement of AI unit economics, training and serving costs, GPU fleet utilization, and developer AI tooling adoption
Design and build datasets integrating cost, utilization, performance, and reliability signals across infrastructure fleets
Build and maintain Airflow-orchestrated pipelines ingesting telemetry, logs, and billing data
Develop dimensional models and Minerva definitions used across Airbnb
Stay hands-on in pipelines and models to identify design and implementation issues
Influence and coach distributed Data Engineers and Analytics Engineers through design and code review
Build frameworks and automated checks adopted by other teams
Resolve conflicting requirements across Infrastructure, Finance, Data Science, and Product Engineering
Eliminate duplication and data fragmentation and drive deprecation of replaced models
Participate in the on-call rotation for owned datasets

Requirements

What you’ll need

12+ years of relevant industry experience with a BS/Masters, or 9+ years with a PhD, in data engineering or a closely related field
Experience designing, building, and operating production data pipelines at large scale
Strong SQL and Python skills
Scala experience is useful but not required
Ability to design dimensional models and define trusted metrics
Ability to become productive quickly in unfamiliar data or technical domains
Experience serving as a technical lead while writing code and influencing without formal authority
Experience writing multi-year technical strategies and securing organizational funding and delivery
Experience building data products without an existing schema or precedent and driving adoption
Experience aligning teams on contested technical decisions and explaining data models to finance partners and engineers
Must live in an approved U.S. state where Airbnb Payments, Inc. is a registered entity: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, or Washington

Benefits

Comp & perks

Bonus eligibility
Equity eligibility
Benefits
Employee Travel Credits
Remote work eligibility
Occasional Airbnb office work or offsite attendance, as agreed with the manager
Reasonable accommodations during recruitment for candidates with disabilities