Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Traffic Intelligence

Airbnb is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to join the Traffic Intelligence team. This role focuses on building systems that classify and manage the billions of daily requests to Airbnb's web and API surfaces, distinguishing legitimate users from automated agents, bots, and scrapers. You will architect and maintain end-to-end traffic classification ML systems, balancing high-performance model deployment with rigorous offline data pipelines. Success is measured by hardening edge-traffic policies, reducing bot-incident MTTM, and establishing rigorous evaluation practices for signal accuracy and evasion-resistance.

• Own the complete lifecycle of traffic-scoring models, from problem framing to real-time deployment, managing the adversarial feedback loop.
• Architect robust offline-to-online pipelines that produce certified source-of-truth datasets, establishing evaluation frameworks such as stratified benchmarks and leakage-prevention checks.
• Execute model optimization within strict millisecond latency budgets at the internet edge, balancing inference costs against incremental value while maintaining fail-open behaviors.
• Partner with security analysts, data platform engineers, and international infrastructure partners to integrate scoring intelligence into automated mitigation workflows.
• Serve as the team's machine learning authority, communicating complex model trade-offs to leadership and cross-functional teams.

• 9+ years of applied experience in production ML, specifically within non-stationary, adversarial domains (e.g., traffic integrity, bot mitigation, or fraud).
• Demonstrated experience architecting scalable, offline-to-online data pipelines for low-latency inference systems.
• Strong foundation in rigorous model evaluation, including metrics like ROC/AUC, precision/recall, and calibration.
• Experience with large-scale data engineering (warehouse-scale SQL) and feature engineering on high-volume event streams.
• Practical knowledge of internet edge infrastructure (e.g., CDN/load balancer behavior, HTTP/TLS signatures).
• Proven track record of cross-functional leadership and mentoring junior engineers.
• MS/PhD in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, ML) or equivalent deep engineering experience.

• PhD in Statistics, Mathematics, Machine Learning, or related field.
• Advanced expertise in graph-based coordination or Sybil network detection.
• Deep experience with causal or econometric methods.
• Experience implementing Bayesian calibration techniques.
• Familiarity with data governance and platform engineering.
• Exposure to LLM agent tooling and benchmarking.

The base pay range for this role is $212,000—$265,000 USD. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.

This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed with your manager. You must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. Some states are excluded; see the careers page for the up-to-date list.

To apply, please use the application link on the Airbnb careers page. For reasonable accommodations during the application process, contact reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com.