Software Engineer - Payments

Software Engineer, Payments

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 Regional Payments team is the engine driving Airbnb’s global growth through deep local understanding. We believe that to truly belong anywhere, guests need a frictionless checkout experience with the payment options they know and trust.

  Our mission is to unlock regional growth by tailoring the payment journey to local needs. From offering the right mix of local payment methods to powering affordability initiatives like installment plans and partner campaigns, we build the platform capabilities that make booking an Airbnb accessible and seamless for everyone. By optimizing the guest checkout experience and understanding regional nuances, we directly drive the company's topline growth and market penetration.

The Difference You Will Make:

• • Drive Topline Growth: Take end-to-end ownership of engineering projects that directly impact the company’s Gross Booking Value (GBV) and growth by optimizing regional checkout conversion funnels.
  • Elevate the Guest Checkout Experience: Architect and build solutions that offer the right payment options at the right time, minimizing friction and maximizing payment approval rates for guests around the world.
  • Unlock Affordability & Partnerships: Design robust backend capabilities to support region-specific partner campaigns, installment plans, and targeted discounts, making travel more affordable while accelerating business growth.
  • Architect & Execute: Drive the technical design, architecture, and implementation of region-first builds, balancing custom local needs with the sustainability of our global payments platform.
            Deep Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Product, Finance, Data, and other XFN stakeholders to define market-level technical strategies and deliver high-impact features.

A Typical Day: 

• Take end-to-end ownership of backend services and APIs (primarily in Java), from architectural design and coding to deployment and maintenance.
• Build and integrate local payment methods, affordability features (like installments), and promotional campaign logic, tailoring our systems to diverse consumer expectations.
• Analyze input and health metrics (e.g., checkout conversion funnels, payment success rates) to turn data insights into actionable engineering improvements that drive GBV.
• Collaborate with Finance and Product to align technical execution with Airbnb’s broader business strategy, ensuring we deliver strong business efficiency and ROI on partner campaigns.
• Actively monitor product/service health, participate in on-call rotations, and proactively identify areas to reduce tech debt and improve system reliability over time.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive engineering culture, sharing knowledge, participating in code reviews, and occasionally mentoring peers

Your Expertise:

• • 3 to 6 years of industry software engineering experience in big tech companies, with a proven track record of end-to-end ownership of projects and system architecture.
  • Proficiency in backend development, primarily in Java (our core stack), with the ability to navigate full-stack environments or learn new languages as needed.
  • B.Tech/BE in Computer Science, MIS, or equivalent technical qualification.
  • Payments Knowledge is a Plus: Experience with payment networks, checkout funnels, promotional campaigns, or affordability products (e.g., Buy Now Pay Later, installments) is highly desired, but a strong willingness to learn is just as valuable.
  • Experience building and scaling reliable web applications, specifically focusing on optimizing user funnels, conversion rates, and driving growth metrics.
  • Strong ability to navigate ambiguity by proactively seeking guidance, distilling complex requirements, and designing scalable solutions.
  • Excellent communication skills—capable of writing detailed technical design documents and collaborating effectively with both technical and non-technical XFN partners (e.g., Finance, Product, Marketing).

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.

Experience Level

Senior Level