Staff Software Engineer, Payments (AirCover Insurance Platform)
Staff-level backend engineer leading the architecture of Airbnb's AirCover insurance platform — designing the systems that manage policies, coverage, enrollment, regional rules, and experimentation for insurance products across global markets. Day to day involves writing and reviewing designs and code for high-availability distributed services, typically in Java, Kotlin, Python, or Go, within a re
- Compensation
- $212K–$265K / yr
- Location
- Remote - USA
- Work setup
- Remote
- Seniority
- Staff
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 9+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 9+ years of relevant software development experience in a fast-paced tech environment (or 7+ with an advanced degree)
- Expertise in backend systems in large-scale, service-oriented architectures, with real-world experience in at least one of Java, Kotlin, Python, Go or similar
- Experience designing multi-region or multi-tenant platforms with configurable, rules-driven behavior
- Experience with A/B testing and experimentation systems, and with using data to improve conversion or attach rates
- Proficiency designing and operating high-performance systems with reliable monitoring and logging
- Working knowledge of relational databases and SQL
- Good judgment in balancing short-term business needs with long-term technical quality
- Hands-on technical leadership across multiple teams
- Excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
Nice to have
- Experience in insurance, payments, fintech or other regulated domains
Full description
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
The AirCover Insurance Platform team builds the systems behind AirCover, which includes Host liability insurance, Experiences liability insurance and Host damage protection. We make it possible to launch and operate insurance products across global markets, and to learn quickly what increases the number of Hosts and guests who are protected. The team works with engineering, product, data science and legal partners across Airbnb's hubs.
What kind of Software Engineer are we looking for?
As a Staff Engineer on the AirCover Insurance Platform, you will lead the design and evolution of the core subsystems that manage policies, coverage, enrollment and regional rules, and the experimentation capabilities that drive attach rate. At the staff level, you establish the technical vision, then deliver a solution that is flexible, always available, auditable and able to scale with the needs of the business.
The Difference You Will Make
- Design the future-state architecture that lets us expand AirCover to new regions and products without rebuilding for each market, balancing short-term launch needs against long-term technical quality.
- Lead the design of an experimentation framework for insurance offers, pricing and placement, with trustworthy measurement of attach rate and downstream outcomes.
- Lead engineers inside and outside your team in building these solutions, and be the technical lead and owner of significant scope through ambiguity.
- Engage early with product managers, designers, data scientists and legal partners to shape requirements and steer teams toward the most efficient path to our goals.
- Raise the bar for technical quality from design, through code review, to production operations.
- Mentor engineers, and be a player/coach who helps build the team and drives collaboration across multiple teams.
- Apply emerging technology, including LLMs, where it improves automation and the experience for Hosts and guests.
A Typical Day
- Write and review designs and code for high-availability, distributed backend services.
- Make architectural trade-offs and scale services in a regulated, multi-region environment with strong audit, privacy and data-integrity needs.