Staff Software Engineer - Compute Data Plane
The Community You Will Join:
The Cloud Infrastructure team is responsible for delivering and operating the foundational platforms and cloud environment that power Airbnb. We provide a reliable, secure, efficient, and ergonomic platform for all Airbnb services to run seamlessly in the cloud.
Airbnb is a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) end user community, and we work closely with the open source community (e.g. k8s, istio) and peer companies to tackle cloud native engineering challenges at scale. You will also have the chance to make an impact on the industry and open source communities.
The Difference You Will Make:
As a software engineer on this team, you'll work on the fundamental infrastructure components that all other teams at Airbnb build upon, such as our compute platform, cloud services, service mesh, cloud provisioning and networking stack. With users around the world, reliability, scalability, efficiency and high availability are our team’s core concerns.
A Typical Day:
Architect and operate scalable infrastructure on top of public cloud services, integrating new cloud provider features as they become available.
Build and extend infrastructure for fleet health monitoring and automated remediation across thousands of Kubernetes nodes.
Design and build Kubernetes controllers, operators, and custom tooling to expose cloud-native compute capabilities to Airbnb’s engineering teams.
Collaborate with cloud provider teams and open source communities to adopt and optimize new infrastructure innovations.
Work closely with kernel and OS primitives to enhance container security, resource isolation, and performance tuning in Airbnb’s compute fleet.
Develop CLI and UI tools to improve infrastructure observability, usability, and operational ergonomics.
Drive rolling upgrades, patch management, and runtime hardening to maintain a secure, stable, and modern compute platform.
Optimize existing systems/services to improve performance and efficiency.
Systematically improve availability by applying industry and distributed systems best practices.
Work with other talented and friendly infrastructure engineers to build the foundation for Airbnb’s technical growth over the next decade.
Your Expertise:
9+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale infrastructure or platform systems.
Experience leading and shipping large scope technical projects in collaboration with multiple experienced engineers.
Deep expertise with Kubernetes node components and ecosystem interfaces: kubelet, CRI, CNI, CSI, CDI etc.
Strong Linux kernel and OS internals knowledge, focusing on container runtimes, resource isolation (cgroups, namespaces), GPU device drivers and security primitives.
Experience managing large Kubernetes fleets (1000+ nodes) in public cloud environments, integrating cloud provider capabilities directly into platform infrastructure.
Expertise building Kubernetes controllers/operators and exposing cloud-native infrastructure features internally.
Skilled with infrastructure management frameworks (Puppet, Chef, Salt, or equivalent) to manage cloud fleets.
Proficient in systems programming languages (Go) and scripting (Ruby, Bash).
Proven track record in automation, health monitoring, and self-remediation of large compute fleets.
Excellent problem-solving and production debugging skills spanning kernel, container runtime, and orchestration layers.
Strong collaborator and communicator, comfortable partnering with cross-functional teams and external vendors.
You are a full-cycle developer: strong ownership and experience building and operating high-scale, distributed systems across the full software life cycle.
You have excellent communication skills and the ability to work well within a team and across engineering teams.
You are a strong problem solver and have solid production debugging skills
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.
About the job
Apply for this position
Staff Software Engineer - Compute Data Plane
The Community You Will Join:
The Cloud Infrastructure team is responsible for delivering and operating the foundational platforms and cloud environment that power Airbnb. We provide a reliable, secure, efficient, and ergonomic platform for all Airbnb services to run seamlessly in the cloud.
Airbnb is a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) end user community, and we work closely with the open source community (e.g. k8s, istio) and peer companies to tackle cloud native engineering challenges at scale. You will also have the chance to make an impact on the industry and open source communities.
The Difference You Will Make:
As a software engineer on this team, you'll work on the fundamental infrastructure components that all other teams at Airbnb build upon, such as our compute platform, cloud services, service mesh, cloud provisioning and networking stack. With users around the world, reliability, scalability, efficiency and high availability are our team’s core concerns.
A Typical Day:
Architect and operate scalable infrastructure on top of public cloud services, integrating new cloud provider features as they become available.
Build and extend infrastructure for fleet health monitoring and automated remediation across thousands of Kubernetes nodes.
Design and build Kubernetes controllers, operators, and custom tooling to expose cloud-native compute capabilities to Airbnb’s engineering teams.
Collaborate with cloud provider teams and open source communities to adopt and optimize new infrastructure innovations.
Work closely with kernel and OS primitives to enhance container security, resource isolation, and performance tuning in Airbnb’s compute fleet.
Develop CLI and UI tools to improve infrastructure observability, usability, and operational ergonomics.
Drive rolling upgrades, patch management, and runtime hardening to maintain a secure, stable, and modern compute platform.
Optimize existing systems/services to improve performance and efficiency.
Systematically improve availability by applying industry and distributed systems best practices.
Work with other talented and friendly infrastructure engineers to build the foundation for Airbnb’s technical growth over the next decade.
Your Expertise:
9+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale infrastructure or platform systems.
Experience leading and shipping large scope technical projects in collaboration with multiple experienced engineers.
Deep expertise with Kubernetes node components and ecosystem interfaces: kubelet, CRI, CNI, CSI, CDI etc.
Strong Linux kernel and OS internals knowledge, focusing on container runtimes, resource isolation (cgroups, namespaces), GPU device drivers and security primitives.
Experience managing large Kubernetes fleets (1000+ nodes) in public cloud environments, integrating cloud provider capabilities directly into platform infrastructure.
Expertise building Kubernetes controllers/operators and exposing cloud-native infrastructure features internally.
Skilled with infrastructure management frameworks (Puppet, Chef, Salt, or equivalent) to manage cloud fleets.
Proficient in systems programming languages (Go) and scripting (Ruby, Bash).
Proven track record in automation, health monitoring, and self-remediation of large compute fleets.
Excellent problem-solving and production debugging skills spanning kernel, container runtime, and orchestration layers.
Strong collaborator and communicator, comfortable partnering with cross-functional teams and external vendors.
You are a full-cycle developer: strong ownership and experience building and operating high-scale, distributed systems across the full software life cycle.
You have excellent communication skills and the ability to work well within a team and across engineering teams.
You are a strong problem solver and have solid production debugging skills
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.