Backend Software Engineer - Guest & Host in London

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: We're building the next generation of Airbnb experiences for guests and hosts across Europe and EMEA - and we're looking for a Backend Software Engineer to help us get there. Our team has a singular mission: make Airbnb the go-to platform across 40+ markets in the region. We're embedded within the Guest and Host organisation and work in close collaboration with engineering teams in San Francisco and across the globe. Our work spans the full app, and we're empowered to make changes wherever they're needed to win in the region. Right now, our focus is on the experiences that matter most - payments, search, pricing, and inventory discovery - but our charter goes far beyond that. If something needs to change to drive success in Europe, we're the team that makes it happen. You'll be working on technically challenging, high-impact problems that shape how millions of Europeans travel and host. From enabling localised experiences that reflect how people in the region actually use the platform, to building the trust and reliability that keeps both guests and hosts coming back - this is work that matters at scale. If you're excited by complex engineering problems, a broad mandate, and the chance to directly influence one of Airbnb's most important strategic priorities, this is the role for you.

The Difference You Will Make:

• Deliver useful, personalized new features for Airbnb’s hosting experience; enabling hosts around the world to connect with others to make hosting on Airbnb easier.
• Build systems that drive reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency in our infrastructure.
• Contribute to technical direction in your area, partner across adjacent teams when needed, and help raise the bar for engineering quality within the team.

A Typical Day:

• Write clear technical designs for projects of moderate-to-high complexity, balancing functional requirements and non-functional qualities (resilience, testability, observability).
• Collaborate with engineers and cross-functional partners in Hosting Services to clarify requirements, manage dependencies, and ensure robust integrations.
• Contribute to technical improvements that make the team’s products higher quality and increase the team’s velocity.
• Help define and improve coding standards, development processes, operational runbooks, and best practices.

Your Expertise:

• 4+ years of industry experience with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. No prior industry experience required for candidates with a PhD.
• Experience in building and scaling high-quality products (or systems) with a focus on operational excellence.
• Strong collaboration with colleagues across multiple timezones.
• Strong communication skills with a demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across teams and stakeholders.

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.