Staff Software Engineer, Unified Data Store

We are looking for a hands-on technical leader who thrives on solving deep architectural challenges and leading through ambiguity. As a Staff Engineer, you will serve as the Technical North Star for the UDS Client Stack, ensuring our data access layer is seamless, high-performance, and future-proof. A Typical Day: Define Technical Strategy: Lead the multi-year roadmap and long-term architecture for the UDS client stack, balancing immediate execution with systemic platform evolution. Architect for Scale: Design and operate a high-performance data access layer that abstracts complexities like indexing, replication, and global consistency models. Drive Engineering Excellence: Lead deep-dive design reviews and establish best practices for building fault-tolerant distributed systems across the organization. Empower Developers: Act as a bridge between infrastructure and product, creating a unified interface that simplifies how engineers interact with complex data systems. Collaborate Globally: Partner with UDS and Data Infrastructure teams globally to align architecture, drive adoption, and deliver high-impact solutions. Your Expertise: Experience: 9+ years of relevant industry experience, with a proven track record of operating at a Senior or Staff level in a high-growth environment. Distributed Systems Mastery: Deep expertise in large-scale distributed systems, including storage internals, networking, and consistency models. Technical Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives, influence architectural decisions across multiple teams, and mentor senior talent. Platform Mindset: A passion for building high-performance infrastructure services that prioritize developer experience and system reliability at scale. Communication: Exceptional ability to articulate complex infrastructure challenges to both technical partners and internal customers. Innovation: A strong interest in leveraging emerging technologies, including Applied AI, to optimize data management and system observability. 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.