Senior Manager, Technical Program Management (Search & AI Foundations)

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:

Airbnb's mission is to create a world where people can Belong Anywhere. As we grow to achieve that mission, we're looking to add a technical, hands-on, and mission-driven Senior Manager of Technical Program Management (TPM) for the Infrastructure team to lead AI Platforms initiatives spanning Search Relevance, Machine Learning Infrastructure (MLI), and Search Knowledge Infrastructure (SKI). This person will partner with our engineering & product teams to build/enhance data-driven decision making across multiple areas in Airbnb. They will partner closely with senior ICs and engineering directors across Airbnb on processes, strategy and execution.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with the Machine Learning (ML) engineers, infrastructure engineers and product managers  from across Airbnb to develop holistic solutions that ensure a vibrant and equitable marketplace. 

The Search Relevance, Machine Learning Infrastructure (MLI), and Search Knowledge Infrastructure (SKI) teams power the ranking, recommendations, model infrastructure, and search intelligence capabilities that make up a core part of Airbnb's AI Platforms, including: Search Ranking for Stays, Experiences, and Services, Home Page Recommendations, Search Bar AutoSuggest and Autocomplete, Marketing Technology, and the ML infrastructure and platform capabilities that support them. The team also creates the fabric for personalization and the underlying model infrastructure, used both on and off platform for Airbnb. We collaborate with many teams including Search Infrastructure, Guest and Host Experiences, MDX, Marketing, CS, and Trust, and many more.

We are looking for a candidate with a robust technical background who deeply understands the problem space, drives requirements, and leverages their AI/ML expertise to resolve strategic challenges that align with Airbnb’s larger goals.

The Difference You Will Make:

Our team of TPMs demonstrate ownership, apply skills in whatever combination necessary, and make order out of chaos to achieve the desired outcome. We work hard to ensure teams understand what they have to deliver and by when. We are responsible for aligning teams, identifying or highlighting dependencies, recognizing and resolving ambiguity, setting expectations, anticipating risk, identifying and removing roadblocks, and ensuring the desired business goals are achieved. We are looking for people who share our passion for tackling complexity head-on while building a world class team of Technical Program Managers. 

A Typical Day: 

• Shape and influence the technical direction of projects, ensuring we meet stakeholder needs while maintaining high-quality standards. Rapidly prototype and validate project ideas through iterative development cycles, adapting as necessary based on insights and data.
• Balance broad, outcome-driven thinking with attention to critical details, exercising sound judgment to prioritize where deep focus is necessary to ensure successful execution.
• Define and secure stakeholder alignment on clear, measurable success criteria to accelerate AI initiatives. Regularly assess risks and opportunities, and devise proactive mitigation strategies to maintain momentum and project success.
• Maintain transparent and effective communication channels to keep stakeholders informed of progress, developments, and challenges.
• Expertly present outcomes and updates to senior leadership, clearly and comprehensively articulating trade-offs, risks, and emerging opportunities.

Your Expertise:

• 13+ years in technical program management function, with at least 8 years of experience managing a team of TPMs, creating a culture of inclusiveness and sustainability
• Demonstrated experience in search relevance, natural language search, and recommendation systems. Experience with applying GenAI/LLM technologies on search is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to work through ambiguity to detailed solutions. You can take a vague problem, crisply frame the challenge, identify a path forward, and drive an initiative over the finish-line.
• Self-motivated, proactive and proven ability to adapt well and work with teams having different operating cadences.
• Sound business judgment, a proven ability to influence others, strong analytical skills, and a track record of taking ownership, leading data driven analyses, and influencing results
• Experience with ML models, LLMs, LRMs, feature development, model testing and resource management to support the development of AI-powered product experiences.
• Familiar with A/B testing, incremental delivery and deployment.
• Ability to ramp up quickly and learn new technologies with minimal lag time.
• Excellent written and oral business communication and people skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders.
  

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.  

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.