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:

Everyone at Airbnb thinks about trust, but our team obsesses over it daily. At the core of trust is safety, and thus we spend a significant amount of our time and energy keeping the community safe. The Trust team is responsible for developing the technology that helps protect our community and platform from fraud while also ensuring our hosts, guests, homes, and experiences meet our high standards. We constantly work to fight against online fraud (such as monetary loss, compromised accounts, spam and scam in messages, fake inventory, etc.) as well as offline fraud (theft, property damage, personal safety, etc.). We also work on onboarding and screening of users, and think about complex topics like identity and reputation to ensure that every interaction with Airbnb helps build trust in us and our community.

You'll work side-by-side with talented product managers, data scientists, software engineers, fraud intelligence, and operations teams. Together, you'll design and build ML solutions that have direct, meaningful impact on user trust, business success, and the global Airbnb community.

The Difference You Will Make:

As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer on the Trust team, you will actively contribute code and ideas that shape the ML systems protecting millions of Airbnb users. You'll own and deliver ML projects end-to-end — from designing and training models to productionizing and operating them at scale, while collaborating closely with cross-functional partners.

You'll tackle real-world challenges such as account takeover, fake accounts, payment fraud, and bot detection. Your work will help reduce risks posed by bad actors while ensuring the platform remains seamless and welcoming for everyone else. As you develop your skills, you'll see the tangible impact of your models, helping real users stay safe and confident as they travel, host, and connect on Airbnb.

A Typical Day:

Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, software engineers, and operations teams to identify opportunities, scope ML solutions, and refine requirements for new or improved Trust models.
Design, build, and productionize end-to-end Machine Learning pipelines, including feature engineering, model training, evaluation, and deployment — for both batch and real-time use cases.
Investigate emerging fraud patterns and threat signals with your teammates, and develop ML-based detections and tools that enable faster, more accurate responses.
Write, review, and ship clean, testable code — whether training a new model, improving an existing pipeline, or optimizing a feature for scalability and reliability.
Work with large-scale structured and unstructured data to continuously improve ML models for Airbnb product, business, and operational use cases.
Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and cross-team collaborations to contribute to a high-quality ML engineering culture.
Work closely with trust defense and platform teams to adapt models and systems to an evolving landscape of fraud attacks.

Your Expertise:

5+ years of industry experience in applied Machine Learning, with a track record of building and productionizing models at scale.
Strong programming skills in Python (required) and familiarity with Scala, Java, or equivalent.
Solid understanding of Machine Learning best practices — e.g., training/serving skew minimization, A/B testing, feature engineering, model selection — and algorithms such as gradient boosted trees, neural networks, transformers, and deep learning.
Experience with ML frameworks and tooling such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or equivalent.
Experience with data engineering and building end-to-end ML pipelines, including both batch and real-time systems.
Exposure to architectural patterns of large, high-scale software applications (e.g., well-designed APIs, high-volume data pipelines, efficient algorithms).
Experience with test-driven development, incremental delivery, and deployment practices.
Exposure to the Trust and Risk domain (e.g., fraud detection, anomaly detection, identity, account integrity) is a plus.
A Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in CS/ML or a related field.

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.

Reasonable Accommodations: We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.

A Note on Recruiting Scams: Scammers sometimes pose as Airbnb recruiters to get money or personal information from candidates. A few things that will always be true for Airbnb’s hiring process: our open roles are posted on Airbnb’s Career’s Page at careers.airbnb.com, and our recruiters correspond only from @airbnb.com or @ext.airbnb.com email addresses. Our recruiters will never ask for your Social Security number, bank account details, passport, or payment app information while you are interviewing. We’ll also never ask you to pay a fee, send money, deposit or cash a check, or purchase work-related equipment (such as a company laptop) during the interview process. We encourage candidates to remain vigilant of these recruiting scams and not share sensitive information if you do not believe an individual is actually affiliated with Airbnb.

About the company

Airbnb runs an online marketplace where travelers book places to stay, local activities and personal services from hosts. Listings range from rooms in shared homes to entire properties and independent hotels, giving guests alternatives to conventional hotel stays. Hosts set prices and availability, while guests search by destination, compare listings and book through the website or mobile app. The platform handles payments and messaging, and earns service fees on reservations rather than renting out properties it owns; hosts receive payouts for the stays, experiences or services they arrange. Airbnb was founded in 2007 and has its headquarters in San Francisco, California.

Company Size

5,001-10,000

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2007

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

Demand is growing: Airbnb's revenue rose 17% to $3.6 billion in the June 2026 quarter.
Eligible employees keep geographic pay flexibility: Airbnb preserves compensation when they move within their country of employment.
Support costs are falling: Airbnb's customer support cost per booking dropped 16% in the June 2026 quarter.

What critics are saying

Residential supply is legally constrained: New York City bans whole-home stays under 30 days in permanent residential buildings.
Airbnb absorbs payment risk: as merchant of record, it bears processing costs and fraudulent chargebacks on bookings.
Remote work has borders: Airbnb requires company approval for temporary international work and regular in-person team gatherings.

What makes Airbnb unique

Hosts get included damage protection: Airbnb's AirCover reimburses eligible property damage up to $3 million, subject to exclusions.
Bookings extend beyond trips: Airbnb users reserve services and experiences without booking accommodation on the platform.
Reviews are reciprocal and delayed: Airbnb publishes host and guest feedback together or after the 14-day deadline.

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Benefits

Comprehensive health plans
Paid volunteer time
Healthy food and snacks
Generous parental and family leave
Learning and development
Annual travel and experiences credit

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

1 year growth

2 year growth

Yahoo Finance

Oct 16th, 2026

Airbnb could hit $241 a share in three years, 38% above today's $174, model suggests

Airbnb stock could reach about $241.20 a share in three years, a 38.4% gain from its $174.28 close on October 15, 2026, according to one analysis. The stock trades at 38.3 times earnings, above its 28.3 average over the last twelve fiscal quarters. The model assumes revenue grows 12.3% a year, from $13.2 billion to $18.6 billion. It also assumes net margin rises from 20.4% to 23.5%, while the price-to-earnings ratio falls to 32.6. Management raised its 2026 outlook to at least mid-teens revenue growth. Nights and seats booked rose 10% in the latest quarter, though net margin fell from 22.7% a year earlier. Investors would see no return if revenue growth slowed to about 0.7% a year. The next net margin reading is due around November 5, 2026.

Yahoo Finance

Oct 12th, 2026

Airbnb: 60% of travellers plan fall weekend getaways as AI search and trip services launch

Airbnb has launched new features this fall as more Americans take short trips, according to the company's survey data. Its survey found 60% of travelers plan a weekend getaway this season, and travel among families with infants is up nearly 25% on last fall. Alex Bender, a senior communications manager at Airbnb, said Gen Z is driving "lore-tripping", or travelling for a place's story, such as Point Pleasant, West Virginia, home of the Mothman legend. Nearly 70% of travelers say visiting iconic stadiums and venues turns live events into full trips. New tools include friends' and family recommendations and AI-powered search that compares homes side by side. Travelers can also book Instacart grocery delivery, laundry service, and baby gear rentals.

TechCentral

Oct 8th, 2026

GT Ferreira backs LekkeSlaap as founders sell up.

GT Ferreira backs LekkeSlaap as founders sell up. LekkeSlaap co-founders Jonathan Womersley and Marcel van de Ghinste have sold the popular accommodation booking platform. LekkeSlaap, the South African accommodation booking platform and rival to Airbnb, has been sold to a consortium of local investors that includes the Dippenaar and Ferreira family offices and Investec. Co-founders Jonathan Womersley and Marcel van de Ghinste have exited the business. The transaction value was not disclosed. The consortium is co-led by Bellair Road Investment Partners and Janic Capital, the Dippenaar family's investment vehicle, led by Adriaan Dippenaar. It also includes the Ferreira Family Office - the family office of Rand Merchant Bank and FirstRand co-founder GT Ferreira, LekkeSlaap confirmed to TechCentral - the Moolman Family Office and Investec. LekkeSlaap's executive management team, led by CEO Frans Joubert, has invested alongside the consortium and will continue to run the business. The deal marks the exit of Womersley, Van de Ghinste and other longstanding shareholders from a business that began as a garage-based travel tech start-up in 2009. LekkeSlaap itself launched in 2013 and now lists more than 40 000 properties across Southern Africa. It says it has served more than nine million guests since it was founded. The deal covers all of Tripco, LekkeSlaap's parent company, of which LekkeSlaap is the main consumer-facing brand, LekkeSlaap told TechCentral. "To see LekkeSlaap grow from a small start-up into a brand used and loved by millions of South Africans has been incredibly rewarding," said Womersley in a statement on Thursday. "After so many years, finding new owners who share our culture, values and vision for the business matters enormously to us." The new owners have brought in two well-known South African business leaders as directors, both of whom have also invested. New board members. Herman Bosman, chairman of the Outsurance Group and Fortress Real Estate and a former CEO of RMB Holdings and RMI Holdings, has been appointed chairman of LekkeSlaap. He has invested through Atelier Partners. He is joined on the board by Rob Paddock, co-founder of online education company GetSmarter, which was sold to US-listed 2U for about R1.4-billion in 2017, and of Valenture Institute. "LekkeSlaap is a great example of what South African entrepreneurs can build when they combine a strong customer proposition with persistence and ambition," said Bosman in Thursday's statement. Bellair Road Investment Partners focuses on long-term growth investments, and its portfolio includes Montego Pet Nutrition, Econofoods and Freedom of Movement. LekkeSlaap competes with global platforms including Booking.com and Airbnb for South African travellers. Joubert said the company would use the new backing to expand further across Southern Africa and invest more in technology and localisation. "LekkeSlaap remains proudly local and independent in spirit, but with the right partners behind us, we can now dream even bigger," said Joubert. - (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media

Charter Communications

Sep 28th, 2026

Airbnb launches $250 million housing accelerator, partners with Florida Housing Coalition.

Airbnb launches $250 million housing accelerator, partners with Florida Housing Coalition. UPDATED 8:39 AM ET Sep. 28, 2026 PUBLISHED 7:25 AM ET Sep. 28, 2026 TAMPA, Fla. - Airbnb is committing an initial $250 million to help move stalled housing developments forward nationwide, while partnering with the Florida Housing Coalition to support affordable housing initiatives and policy reforms across the state. The company's new Housing Accelerator aims to unlock more than $5 billion in housing development over the next decade by addressing financing gaps and regulatory barriers that can delay construction. In West Tampa, the Rome Yards redevelopment offers a glimpse of the type of mixed-income housing Florida leaders say is needed to address the state's housing shortage. The project is transforming a former 18-acre city maintenance yard along the Hillsborough River into a mixed-income community. Its first phase, Gallery at Rome Yards, will include 234 affordable and workforce housing units. The full master plan calls for approximately 954 homes, with nearly three-quarters designated as affordable or workforce housing. "This really represents what the future of affordable housing is, both for our state, region. We need more projects like this happening," said Ashon Nesbitt, CEO of the Florida Housing Coalition. Nesbitt said developments of this size face numerous challenges, including securing financing, navigating zoning requirements and obtaining necessary approvals. "Development is complicated, especially at this scale," he said. Closing the financing gap. Airbnb's Housing Accelerator is designed to help approved housing developments that are nearly fully financed but still lack the final capital needed to begin construction. The company calls its approach "last-dollar" financing, targeting projects that might otherwise remain stalled despite having secured most of their funding. "What we're saying with this investment is we're not going to be bystanders," said Airbnb spokesperson Kevin Munoz. "We're going to actually be a part of the housing solution alongside those that are really fighting for long, long term reform." Florida partnership targets housing barriers. Alongside its nationwide financing commitment, Airbnb is making a separate donation to the Florida Housing Coalition to support its policy research, advocacy, training and technical assistance. Nesbitt said the partnership will help the coalition address obstacles that prevent affordable housing projects from moving forward. "A big part of that is our land use and our regulatory environment really setting the stage for more production of housing," he said. The coalition helped advance Florida's "Yes in God's Backyard" legislation, which allows qualifying religious institutions to develop affordable housing on their property. The organization is now working to put the law into practice through workshops, technical assistance and resources for faith-based organizations interested in developing housing. Airbnb also plans to support efforts such as the proposed Florida Starter Homes Act, aimed at reducing certain zoning restrictions and making it easier to build smaller, more affordable homes. "We know that this is a time when costs continue to rise, and housing continues to be out of reach for a lot of everyday Floridians and everyday Americans across the country," Munoz said. The Florida Housing Coalition says Airbnb's support will allow it to expand its work with local governments, housing developers and community organizations to translate housing legislation into new homes. Developers interested in the nationwide financing initiative can submit proposals through Airbnb's Housing Accelerator website.

FingerLakes1.com

Sep 26th, 2026

New York cider campaign pairs rural travel guide with Airbnb.

New York cider campaign pairs rural travel guide with Airbnb. * September 26, 2026 6:34 AM * Staff Report New York has launched a statewide cider-tourism campaign that will connect travelers with orchards, cideries, restaurants and nearby lodging through a new partnership between the New York Cider Association and Airbnb. The "NY State of Cider" campaign includes an online guide covering five cider-producing regions, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul's announcement. The launch carries out an agritourism commitment in her 2026 State of the State address. The initiative is intended to bring visitors to rural businesses and farms, rather than promote cider as a stand-alone product. The guide will link accommodations with cideries, orchards, restaurants, liquor stores, attractions and outdoor activities that travelers can combine in a trip. Discover more Regional Information Hub Hochul said the partnership is meant to create opportunities for farms, small businesses, restaurants and tourism destinations. The announcement does not put a dollar amount on campaign funding or project the number of visitors it will attract. Digital guide connects lodging and local businesses. The New York landing page on Airbnb's website will feature five distinct cider regions across the state. The announcement describes the guide's types of destinations but does not list the five regions or individual businesses in its text. The broader campaign will include integrated marketing, digital storytelling, culinary partnerships, tourism promotion and public-engagement activities. Those elements are intended to make cider part of the state's agricultural heritage and visitor experience. Airbnb says 86% of travelers are interested in visiting rural communities and nearly two-thirds of its guests travel within about 480 kilometers of home. Those figures are attributed to the company; the state announcement does not provide a sample size, field dates or methodology for them. Michael Blaustein, Airbnb's policy lead for the Northeast Atlantic region, said the guide is intended to help visitors discover cider country and direct more of their spending to hosts and small businesses. Discover more Local News Aggregator Lakes & Rivers Finger Lakes Map New York Cider Association Executive Director Scott Ramsey described the campaign as a way to support agriculture, local businesses and agritourism. He said the industry connects orchards and growers with makers, restaurants and their surrounding communities. State highlights cider industry's agricultural role. New York has more active cideries than any other state and ranks second nationally in apple production, according to the governor's office. The announcement describes New York as the country's leading hard-cider producer and puts the industry's total annual economic impact above $1.8 billion. The state says orchards and cideries preserve productive farmland, support thousands of jobs and contribute to local economies. Those are the administration's descriptions of the industry, not measured results of the newly launched campaign. Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball said visits to cideries can support growers and local food systems while helping maintain farm landscapes. State Liquor Authority Chair Lily Fan said the agency supports the effort to promote producers and local businesses. Empire State Development President and CEO Hope Knight said the campaign would encourage residents and visitors to explore the state's agricultural offerings. State Sen. Michelle Hinchey emphasized family-run orchards, cideries and restaurants as destinations the partnership could help visitors find. Discover more Sports News Updates Event Promotion Service Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo said she supported including the initiative in this year's state budget. A co-sponsor of the original Farm Cidery law, she linked the campaign to the industry's growth and its place in agritourism. The campaign begins with the digital-guide partnership and statewide promotional work. Its stated purpose is to help travelers build trips around existing cider businesses, with lodging, food and outdoor destinations nearby. FingerLakes1.com is the region's leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to [email protected].

Airbnb

Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Trust

About the job