Senior Engineering Manager, Media Foundation

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 Media Foundation team builds the core platforms and infrastructure that power photo and video capture, upload, processing, storage, and delivery across Airbnb's products, at a massive global scale. We partner closely with Product, Design, Data Science, Trust, and Infrastructure teams to ensure every image and video guests and Hosts see is fast, high-quality, and reliable, from the moment a Host uploads a photo to the moment a Guest views it in search results.

The Difference You Will Make:

As the Senior Engineering Manager for Media Foundation, you will lead a team of engineers to build and operate Airbnb's media infrastructure, the foundation powering every photo, video, and document that users interact with on the platform. Capabilities include uploads, AI/ML transformations, distribution, and presentation within the product. You will shape the team’s vision and help steer the organization towards our larger goals. This includes day-to-day operations, technical deep dives, community engagement with internal engineering teams, and strategic planning.

As the technical and organizational leader for Media Foundation, you own the reliability, scalability, and evolution of the systems that power every media interaction on the Airbnb platform from the moment a host uploads a photo to the instant a guest streams a listing video. Your experience in both media technology and people management will be essential to the maintenance, modernization, and innovation of Airbnb's media platform. You set the bar for engineering excellence, define what great looks like for your team, and create an environment where engineers grow, do their best work, and are proud of what they ship.

A Typical Day: 

• Set technical strategy and architecture for media infrastructure across multiple teams, aligning investment with product and business priorities.
• Lead, coach, and grow other managers and senior technical leads, and create an environment where engineers can do their best work.
• Partner with Product, Design, Trust, and other infrastructure orgs to shape a resilient, scalable media platform roadmap.
• Champion engineering excellence and operational rigor, and resolve systemic technical debt affecting reliability, performance, or velocity.
• Retain, grow, and hire a diverse team of high-performing engineers and managers to execute an ambitious media platform vision.

Your Expertise:

• 12+ years of industry experience, with a minimum of 6+ years in engineering management, including managing other managers or senior technical leads.
• Bachelor's and/or Master's degree, preferably in CS, or equivalent experience.
• Deep expertise in large-scale distributed systems, with a track record of setting technical strategy and architecture across multiple teams; media/content infrastructure experience (ingestion, processing, storage, CDN delivery) is a strong plus.
• Strong product instinct and communication skills, with proven experience influencing senior cross-functional and cross-organizational partners to deliver high-quality, user-facing platform capabilities.
• Track record of leading and shipping large, cross-team initiatives with significant business impact, and building a culture of operational excellence, quality, and reliability.
• Sound judgment balancing short-term business needs with long-term technical and organizational health, with a flexible leadership style suited to varying team maturity.
• Demonstrated ability to identify, retain, grow, and acquire critical engineering and management talent, with a strong commitment to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion within teams.

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.

How We'll Take Care of You:

Our job titles may span more than one career level. 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.  

Pay Range$248,000—$310,000 USD