Senior Software Engineer - Data Security

The Community You Will Join:

Airbnb is built on trust. The data security team’s mission is to keep the data of millions of users secured and protected in our platform while they explore the world.

The Difference You Will Make:

We are looking for a highly motivated and experienced Senior Software Engineer to join our team. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for designing and implementing robust controls to identify, secure, and prevent data leakage across our infrastructure in this fast-growing business within the ever-evolving AI landscape. You will collaborate extensively with cross-functional teams to ensure adherence to security best practices and compliance with privacy regulations. This will enable engineers to develop secure features efficiently, rather than encountering impediments. We encourage applications from individuals who excel at securing customer and infrastructure data and developing highly scalable solutions.

A Typical Day: 

• Design and build scalable systems for identifying and protecting sensitive and personal data in various formats (relational and non-relational databases, cloud storage, structured and unstructured data). Enhance existing end-to-end data classification workflows using Regex patterns, and build new data classification and protection methods with advanced machine learning.

• Integrate AI/ML into security practices to enhance contextual awareness and efficiency. For example, utilize LLMs for advanced data discovery, classification, and incident response.

• Implement strong access controls, data minimization, data encryption, and masking to safeguard sensitive data and facilitate responsible AI/ML initiatives.

• Collaborate with Data Governance to design and build complex back-end architecture that is performant and scalable, providing a deep understanding of the risks associated with all Airbnb data, including data ownership, access, and lineage.

• Design and enforce controls to prevent data leakage across various platforms. Automate security enforcement at scale, collaborate with data platform teams and product teams for data governance best practice. 

Other highly relevant work include

• Developing and maintaining a platform to manage third-party vendors integrated with Airbnb, ensuring visibility and protection of user data shared with these vendors.

• Building and scaling data infrastructure using AWS cloud technologies, with a focus on expanding Data Loss Prevention (DLP) coverage across AWS-Corp, Azure, GCP, and OCI.

• Partnering with security teams, privacy engineering, data management, and data governance to maintain compliance with data protection regulations.

• Addressing and resolving data security and infrastructure-related issues.

• Support security incident response.

Check out project examples in technical blogs:

• Personal Data Classification

• Automating Data Protection at Scale, Part 1

• Automating Data Protection at Scale, Part 2

• Automating Data Protection at Scale, Part 3

• Where S Waldo S W 2-  Building Data Discovery And Classification At Scale

Your Expertise:

• 5+ years of software development or job-related work experience.

• Proficiency in one of the programming languages Java, Kotlin, or Python.

• Working knowledge of cloud computing (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

• Proficiency in one or more of the following domains is required: Generalist Backend, Data Engineering, Machine Learning, or Security Engineering with a focus on development.

• Knowledge of data classification, encryption, and compliance frameworks.

• Experience in a highly collaborative environment, enabling other engineers to develop secure products by default without requiring specialized security expertise.

Nice to Haves

• Machine Learning, AI/LLM  experience preferred

• Prior experience in data loss prevention or related security fields.

• Prior experience with Airflow.

• Significant experience in building robust internal products/tools or production backend services at scale.

• Defensive security experience, shipping projects that mitigate application or infrastructure risks at scale.

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: reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com. 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.