Machine Learning Engineer, Relevance and Personalization

Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Relevance and Personalization

Airbnb

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 Relevance and Personalization team at Airbnb is responsible for search and recommendation across the entire Airbnb digital platform. Be a leader in the team working on critical, impactful projects with focus on developing end-to-end ranking algorithms and ecosystems for optimizing multiple critical business objectives. The Difference You Will Make: We build cutting-edge AI technologies across the end-to-end search ranking product stack w.r.t. data pipelines, feature and model innovations, serving and experimentation efficiency, leveraging rich signals from various types of data (structured, sequential, image, text, etc) at Airbnb. We collaborate closely with teams across Airbnb to develop the ranking solutions and support a healthy marketplace for hosts and guests to further Airbnb’s mission of creating a world where people can Belong Anywhere. Some past publications from the team can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/airbnb-relevance-publications/home A Typical Day:  * Work with large scale structured and unstructured data, build and continuously improve cutting edge Machine Learning models for Airbnb product, business and operational use cases. * Work collaboratively with cross-functional partners including software engineers, product managers, operations and data scientists, identify opportunities for business impact, understand, refine, and prioritize requirements for machine learning models, drive engineering decisions, and quantify impact. * Hands-on develop, productionize, and operate Machine Learning models and pipelines at scale, including both batch and real-time use cases. * Leverage third-party and in-house Machine Learning tools & infrastructure to develop reusable, highly differentiating and high-performing Machine Learning systems, enable fast model development, low-latency serving and ease of model quality upkeep. * Example projects include: feature platform, model interpretability, hyperparameter optimization, concept drift detection. Your Expertise: * 5+ years of industry experience in applied Machine Learning, inclusive MS or PhD in relevant fields * Strong programming (Scala / Python / Java / C++ or equivalent) and data engineering skills * Deep understanding of Machine Learning best practices (eg. training/serving skew minimization, A/B test, feature engineering, feature/model selection), algorithms (eg. neural networks/deep learning, optimization) and domains (eg. natural language processing, computer vision, personalization, search and recommendation, marketplace optimization) * Experience with 3 or more of these technologies: Tensorflow, PyTorch, Kubernetes, Spark, Airflow (or equivalent), Kafka (or equivalent), data warehouse (eg. Hive) * Industry experience building end-to-end Machine Learning infrastructure and/or building and productionizing Machine Learning models * Exposure to architectural patterns of a large, high-scale software applications (e.g., well-designed APIs, high volume data pipelines, efficient algorithms, models) * Experience with test driven development, familiar with A/B testing, incremental delivery and deployment. * Experience applying large language models and modern NLP is a plus, e.g. for sequence tagging, text generation, intent classification, or representation learning. * Familiarity with building natural-language, AI-native search experiences is a plus, e.g. autocomplete/smart compose, query understanding, or user-intent modeling. 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. 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.   Pay Range $191,000—$225,000 USD

Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Relevance and Personalization (Query Intelligence)

Airbnb

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 Relevance and Personalization team at Airbnb is responsible for search and recommendation across the entire Airbnb digital platform. In this role you'll focus on query intelligence, the front door of search working on critical, impactful projects that turn what a guest types, taps, or says into a precise understanding of their intent, spanning autocomplete and smart compose, query tagging, query expansion, and intent modeling across Stays, Experiences, and Services. The Difference You Will Make: Query understanding is where every search begins, and it directly shapes retrieval, ranking, and ultimately the perfect match between guests and hosts. We build cutting-edge AI technologies across the end-to-end search ranking product stack w.r.t. data pipelines, feature and model innovations, serving and experimentation efficiency, leveraging rich signals from various types of data (structured, sequential, image, text, etc) and increasingly large language models at Airbnb. You'll build the models that parse free-form and natural-language multimodal queries, extract entities and location context, classify intent, and anticipate what guests want before they finish typing. We collaborate closely with teams across Airbnb to develop the ranking solutions and support a healthy marketplace for hosts and guests to further Airbnb's mission of creating a world where people can Belong Anywhere. Some past publications from the team can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/airbnb-relevance-publications/home A Typical Day:  * Work with large scale structured and unstructured data, build and continuously improve cutting edge Machine Learning models for Airbnb product, business and operational use cases, with a focus on query understanding. * Develop query understanding capabilities — autocomplete and smart compose, query tagging (sequence tagging / NER), query expansion, and query/user intent modeling — and natural-language ("search in your own words") search experiences powered by modern NLP and LLMs. * Work collaboratively with cross-functional partners including software engineers, product managers, operations and data scientists, identify opportunities for business impact, understand, refine, and prioritize requirements for machine learning models, drive engineering decisions, and quantify impact. * Hands-on develop, productionize, and operate Machine Learning models and pipelines at scale, including both batch and real-time use cases. * Leverage third-party and in-house Machine Learning tools & infrastructure to develop reusable, highly differentiating and high-performing Machine Learning systems, enable fast model development, low-latency serving and ease of model quality upkeep. * Example projects include: smart compose and language generation for search, LLM-based sequence taggers, LLM-driven query/location expansion, intent classification, and user-intent sequence modeling. Your Expertise: * 5+ years of industry experience in applied Machine Learning, inclusive MS or PhD in relevant fields. * Strong programming (Scala / Python / Java / C++ or equivalent) and data engineering skills. * Deep understanding of Machine Learning best practices (eg. training/serving skew minimization, A/B test, feature engineering, feature/model selection), algorithms (eg. neural networks/deep learning, optimization) and domains (eg. natural language processing, personalization, search and recommendation, marketplace optimization). * Experience with 3 or more of these technologies: Tensorflow, PyTorch, Kubernetes, Spark, Airflow (or equivalent), Kafka (or equivalent), data warehouse (eg. Hive). * Industry experience building end-to-end Machine Learning models. * Experience applying large language models and modern NLP — e.g., sequence tagging/NER, text generation, intent classification, or embedding/representation learning. * Familiarity with building natural-language, AI-native and agentic search experiences is a plus. * Exposure to architectural patterns of large, high-scale software applications (e.g., well-designed APIs, high volume data pipelines, efficient algorithms, models). 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. 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.   Pay Range $200,000—$235,000 USD

Principal AI/ML Researcher / Engineer In Bayesian, Large Foundational Systems, and Distributional Reinforcement Learning

Airbnb

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. ABOUT THE ROLE We are seeking a seasoned Principal AI/ML Researcher and Engineer with deep expertise in Bayesian Learning, and Distributional Reinforcement Learning (RL) to lead the advanced research and development of cutting-edge intelligence AI models. These systems will integrate foundational Bayesian frameworks with advanced architectures, including Mixture of Models, multi-pass sharded systems, multitask and multi-objective optimization, and external knowledge incorporation. Additionally, the role involves innovating ways to interoperate and integrate Large Language Models (LLMs) and Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) with Reasoning, Planning, and Decisioning abilities into the Bayesian frameworks to create a seamless foundational model fabric that synergizes with diverse model ecosystems.The role will require ensuring these models and supporting systems perform efficiently at scale, integrating them into live systems that directly impact product and user experience. Our goal is to build next-generation AI platforms that redefine personalization, decision-making, and intelligence across diverse applications. You will work on developing production-level systems, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and play a pivotal role in shaping our AI/ML strategy.  RELEVANCE AND IMPACT OF THIS ROLE  This role drives Airbnb's evolution toward probabilistic, uncertainty-aware intelligence systems capable of reasoning under ambiguity and learning continuously from dynamic environments. The near-term impact spans improved personalization quality, ranking quality, uncertainty estimation, and adaptive decision-making across guest and host experiences — enabling policy-driven intelligence that handles long-tail discovery, evolving preferences, and complex marketplace dynamics. Longer term, this role helps establish Airbnb's leadership in adaptive probabilistic intelligence by building the foundational substrate that connects Bayesian learning, reinforcement learning, foundational models, multi-agent orchestration, and large-scale personalization into a unified adaptive architecture — where AI systems continuously balance exploration, exploitation, uncertainty, and ecosystem optimization at scale. WHAT YOU WILL DO RESEARCH & INNOVATION: * Lead groundbreaking applied research in Bayesian systems, distributional reinforcement learning, and multi-modal architectures to drive novel advances in AI and Foundational Intelligence (Ranking, Recommendations, Personalization) to fill out gaps in the Long Tail Curve of Discovery in order to grow the Business Offerings on both Guest and Host Long Tail Ends * Bridge the gap between theoretical AI/ML advancements and real-world production systems * Ensure that new research can be effectively applied and scaled to meet practical needs. ARCHITECT AND DESIGN: * Define and drive the architecture of large-scale Bayesian Framework-based AI systems at Airbnb. * Develop multi-pass sharded Bayesian + Discriminative/Generative single to multi agent systems for scale and efficiency. * Incorporate Mixture of Models and Agents, multitask learning, multi-objective optimization, and external knowledge systems into model designs. * Innovate methods to interoperate with LLMs, LRMs, LMMs, and transformer-based architectures, ensuring seamless integration and collaboration within the AI ecosystem using AI Multi-Agentic Frameworks. MODEL DEVELOPMENT: * Build and refine Bayesian or Markovian Graph chains to incorporate uncertainty estimation, adaptive decision-making, and probabilistic reasoning. * Develop foundational models by merging Bayesian techniques with Classical ML with L[L/M/R]Ms and other advanced architectures, ensuring compatibility and synergy. * Continuously improve systems for scalability, performance, and robustness, enabling models to absorb and adapt to diverse data sources and paradigms. TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP: * Lead technical direction and strategy for AI/ML systems. * Influence cross-functional teams, including engineering leaders, product managers, and data scientists, to adopt unified intelligence platform approaches. * Perform code reviews, mentor engineers, and champion best practices in AI/ML. COLLABORATION: * Work with structured and unstructured data to design models for diverse use cases. * Collaborate with cross-functional partners to identify opportunities, refine requirements, and drive impactful solutions. * Translate complex technical decisions into business value. OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: * Develop, productionize, and maintain scalable AI/ML pipelines, including batch and real-time use cases. * Implement advanced model evaluation systems, including interpretability, hyperparameter optimization, and drift detection. * Ensure system reliability and performance through rigorous testing and validation. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS * Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience). * 15+ years of technical experience in Applied Machine Learning, including producing code and deploying production systems. * Strong programming skills in Python, Scala, Java, or C++, with expertise in AI/ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch). * Proven experience with Bayesian Neural Networks, Bayesian Learning, and Reinforcement Learning. * Strong math background in probability, statistics, and optimization. * Experience with building scalable AI/ML systems using technologies like Spark, Kafka, and distributed architectures. * Familiarity with advanced ML techniques, including Mixture of Models, Ensemble Techniques, multitask learning, and sharded architectures. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS * Ph.D. in a relevant technical field with 15+ years of experience in AI/ML research and engineering. * Expertise in architecting and leading large-scale AI/ML systems with enterprise-level impact. * Hands-on experience with multitask and multi-objective optimization systems. * Experience in designing knowledge-driven systems and integrating external knowledge sources. * Familiarity with foundational models, transformers, and their role in interoperating with Bayesian systems. * Exceptional leadership, collaboration, and communication skills in complex, matrixed organizations. * Strong track record of publishing research or developing novel AI/ML techniques. 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. 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.   Pay Range $296,000—$370,000 USD