Staff Software Engineer, Knowledge Graph

The Community You Will Join:

Search is central to Airbnb's marketplace, connecting guests with hosts. The Knowledge Graph team within the Search organization builds the data foundation that powers various product experiences, including search and discovery. By extracting structured insights from multiple sources, including user-generated content, the team helps guests find and tailor their perfect homes and experiences. We work closely with cross-functional partners to revolutionize the Airbnb product experience and further Airbnb's mission of helping anyone feel like they belong anywhere.

The Difference You Will Make:

As a Staff Software Engineer on Airbnb’s Knowledge Graph team, you’ll play a leading role in constructing knowledge from vast amounts of cross-domain data. You will be deeply involved in solving complex technical challenges and driving the development of high-quality, large-scale data solutions. Your expertise in processing large-scale structured and unstructured data is essential to ensure the continuous improvement of the knowledge graph.

A Typical Day:

• Work hands-on with vast amounts of structured and unstructured data to build and refine data quality in knowledge graphs.
• Define and implement success metrics to continuously measure and enhance data quality.
• Collaborate with a wide range of partners (i.e. data producers, downstream consumers, taxonomy teams, etc.) to understand product use cases and data requirements, then design and implement solutions for data onboarding, reconciliation, and serving.
• Utilize both in-house and third-party Machine Learning tools and infrastructure to apply various algorithms for high-quality data curation.
• Mentor and guide team members, helping them solve technical challenges and grow their expertise.

Your Expertise:

• Extensive Experience: 7+ years of hands-on experience in developing large-scale solutions for structured and unstructured data across the full lifecycle, including data acquisition, extraction, processing, reconciliation, and production-level deployment.
• Data Quality Expertise: Deep expertise in addressing data quality challenges across multiple domains and data sources, with a strong understanding of both infrastructure and data perspectives.
• Taxonomy: proven experience in designing taxonomies and ontologies for representing entities and relationships within a knowledge graph framework.
• Knowledge Construction: Strong hands-on experience applying Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and Large Language Models (LLM) for content understanding and knowledge construction. Expertise in areas such as text classification, named entity recognition, information retrieval, and knowledge extraction.
• Programming Proficiency: Advanced skills in programming languages such as Python, Java, or C#, with deep knowledge of data structures and algorithms.
• Problem-Solving: Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking abilities, with a demonstrated capacity to adapt to evolving challenges and technologies.
• Collaborative Communication: Excellent communication skills with the ability to work effectively within teams and across teams in a fast-paced environment.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 9+ years of relevant software development experience in a fast-paced tech environment.
• Proven expertise and hands-on experience in backend systems, particularly in large-scale, high-quality data processing and optimization.

Benefits:

• Stock
• Competitive salaries
• Quarterly employee travel coupon
• Paid time off
• Medical, dental, & vision insurance
• Life insurance and disability benefits
• Fitness Discounts
• 401K
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Apple equipment
• Commuter Subsidies
• Community Involvement (4 hours per month to give back to the community)
• Company sponsored tech talks and happy hours
• Much more…

How We'll Take Care of You:

Our job titles may span more than one career level. The starting base pay for this role is between $200,000 - $254,000. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.  

Your Location:

This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While the position is Remote Eligible, you must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. Click here for the up-to-date list of excluded states. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from.

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.

We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: [email protected]. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process. 

We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.