Engineering Manager, Client Products & Emerging Tech

Engineering Manager, Client Products & Emerging Tech

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 Client Products & Emerging Tech team was formed in 2023 with the mission to create innovative product frameworks and features that address common use cases for Airbnb's Guest and Hosts across multiple platforms, incorporating best practices and leveraging emerging technologies. The team works collaboratively with cross‑functional partners in Design, Product Management, and other Engineering teams to quickly brainstorm, prototype, develop, and deliver high quality product experiences.

The team is part of the Product Foundation organization, which is responsible for Airbnb’s product infrastructure including Design Language System (DLS), UI frameworks, media frontend, and data access across different client platforms (Android, iOS, and Web). It plays a central role in Airbnb’s overall client strategy, contributes to libraries such as Lottie and Epoxy, and has more recently enabled Airbnb’s transition to Jetpack Compose.

This is a rare opportunity to lead a team with deep historical impact at Airbnb that has evolved to enable complex motion designs, accessible UX at scale, and tooling that increasingly leverages AI. As the leader of the Client Products & Emerging team, you will establish a vision that’s unique to Airbnb and does not follow typical industry conventions.

• Explore, shape, and develop new product experiences alongside cross‑functional partners (design and product); from ideation to implementation at scale
• Collaborate with product, design, and other stakeholders to identify and document requirements
• Strengthen the team’s partnerships with key stakeholders in Engineering, Design, and Product to make ambitious product feature concepts a reality.
• Lead investments into new technical capabilities that push the envelope and unlock product innovation
• Collaborate with engineers to plan and sequence the delivery of new features and capabilities, making necessary trade‑offs, while effectively communicating the delivery plans and celebrating successful launches
• Partner with peer engineering teams to integrate new features that impact different areas within the product
• Recruit and nurture exceptional engineering talent by investing meaningful one‑on‑one time to understand their motivations and team dynamics, while also creating a tailored career development plan.
• Foster an inclusive team culture and environment that encourages collaboration, technical excellence, and innovation via calculated risks and product mindset.

• 9+ years of industry experience with 5+ years of people management experience, including experience managing technical leads
• Strong product and design instinct, previous proven experience building delightfully designed consumer experiences
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities, with experience working alongside various engineering teams and cross‑functional partners, effectively influencing decisions among a diverse range of stakeholders.
• Flexible in leadership style, can adapt to a variety of ways of working depends on the situation
• Experience leading and delivering large initiatives with significant business impact
  
  Committed to fostering a culture of operational excellence, with focus on raising the bar for quality, reliability and availability
• Success in developing teams to perform at their fullest potential.
• Past hands‑on experience with iOS, Android, and/or Frontend Web UI development.
• Good judgment in making tradeoffs to balance short‑term business needs with long‑term technical quality
• Experience fostering an inclusive and engaging team environment
• Able to identify, retain, grow and acquire critical talent

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent…