
Senior Staff Engineer, Payments Compliance
Airbnb
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Remote
Location: United States
Visit company websiteExplore more
Salary
💰 $244,000 - $305,000 per year
Job Level
About the role
- Own the end-to-end system design vision for the Compliance organization, setting the architectural direction for an engineering organization of nearly 30 engineers across multiple teams.
- Drive foundational architectural shifts, including the move from an account-centric model to a customer-centric one — rethinking how we model identity, risk, and enforcement across the platform.
- Lead the technical strategy for expanding KYC capabilities — supporting small and medium businesses, reimagining business onboarding and account structures, enabling KYC through third-party APIs, and extending verification to third-party payees.
- Architect systems that adapt to the evolving digital identity landscape — including new verification standards, government-issued digital credentials, and shifting privacy regulations — without requiring costly re-platforming.
- Ensure our technical foundations are flexible enough to absorb unforeseen regulatory mandates with aggressive timelines, without destabilizing existing systems or requiring disproportionate engineering investment.
- Partner with technical leaders across multiple organizations to drive alignment on shared capabilities and cohesive system design, reducing duplication and compounding technical debt.
- Work closely with Product, Design, Policy, Legal, Operations, and other cross-functional partners as part of a globally distributed team to define and ship impactful features.
- Lead and mentor engineers — both inside and outside your immediate team — raising the technical bar and developing the next generation of technical leaders within Compliance.
- Advocate for and drive systemic improvements by identifying patterns to streamline development, reduce toil, and increase technical quality and operational excellence over time.
Requirements
- 15+ years of technical experience, with 10+ years of relevant industry experience in a fast-paced tech environment.
- Prior knowledge of Regulatory Compliance standards (AML, KYC, sanctions screening) and demonstrated experience designing and implementing those controls at scale.
- Proven track record of setting technical direction and architectural strategy for a large engineering organization, with the ability to drive alignment across organizational boundaries.
- Experience designing systems that span multiple teams and domains, with a focus on cohesion, reusability, and long-term maintainability over initiative-by-initiative solutions.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence senior technical and non-technical stakeholders across the company.
- Strong problem solver with deep experience operating and leading on-call for production systems at scale.
- Technical leadership: hands-on experience leading large project teams, making high-stakes design tradeoffs, and translating regulatory requirements into scalable system architectures.
- BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent work experience.
- Proficiency in one or more back-end server languages (Java/Ruby/Go/C++/etc.)
- Deep understanding of architectural patterns of high-scale web and data applications.
- Be future looking — we might be focused on immediate regulations, but need to build for the long term. You think in terms of platforms, not projects.
- End-to-end ownership mentality that transcends team boundaries, with the credibility and judgment to make decisions that carry direct financial and legal implications.
Benefits
- This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard Skills & Tools
system designarchitectural strategyKYC capabilitiesback-end server languagesJavaRubyGoC++architectural patternsproduction systems
Soft Skills
communication skillsproblem solvingtechnical leadershipmentoringinfluencing stakeholderscollaborationend-to-end ownership mentalitystrategic thinkingalignment across teamsadvocacy for improvements
Certifications
BS in Computer ScienceMS in Computer SciencePhD in Computer Science