Staff Software Engineer (Payments, AirCover Insurance Platform)

• 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
• 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
• 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
• Analyze data to find gaps in conversion and coverage, and turn insights into product and platform changes
• Partner with Product, Data Science, Data Engineering, Legal and platform teams to drive engineering decisions and influence outcomes
• Present technical and product deep dives to stakeholders and leadership

Benefits

• Paid volunteer time
• Health food and snacks
• Generous parental and family leave
• Learning and development
• Annual travel and experiences credit

• 9+ years of relevant software development experience in a fast-paced tech environment (or 7+ with an advanced degree)
• Experience in insurance, payments, fintech or other regulated domains is a plus
• 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
• Hands-on technical leadership across multiple teams, with excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
• Good judgment in balancing short-term business needs with long-term technical quality
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience
• Proficiency designing and operating high-performance systems with reliable monitoring and logging, and working knowledge of relational databases and SQL
• Experience with A/B testing and experimentation systems, and with using data to improve conversion or attach rates