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:
At Airbnb, privacy isn’t just a requirement—it’s the cornerstone of our commitment to trust and belonging. As our growth accelerates through AI-powered personalization and innovative social features, privacy takes on new importance—fueling our ability to deliver magical, personalized experiences while ensuring our users feel safe, respected, and in control. We aim to set ourselves apart from the competition—creating world-class, privacy-forward personalization that earns user loyalty and mitigates risk.
The Difference You Will Make:
We are looking for a Senior Manager, Privacy Architect to join our Privacy & Data Security Team. Someone with deep privacy expertise and a strong technical background, including extensive experience in data governance/management, compliance on big data architectures, and knowledge of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), AI/ML technologies, and the AI/ML lifecycle. This role will work closely with the Chief Privacy Officer, Legal, and other Privacy & Data Security Team members, as well as engineering and data science teams. Responsibilities include leading high-impact initiatives and defining technical requirements for compliance and the responsible use of technology at Airbnb.
About You:
- Deep knowledge of current privacy and technology trends, with a strong passion for data governance/management and AI/ML.
- Demonstrated experience in ensuring privacy-by-design principles are applied throughout the design, construction, and operation of digital products and services at scale.
- Proven track record in translating legal requirements into actionable technical measures and guidelines that enable responsible and rapid innovation within engineering and data science teams.
- Self-starter who can work autonomously with limited guidance, analyzing information to evaluate quality and applying creative thinking to decision-making.
- Comfortable performing under pressure to meet deadlines in an ambiguous, matrixed organization.
- Strong organizational and motivational skills, coupled with a bias for action.
- Proven track record of collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams, including legal and engineering, and leading complex projects to desired outcomes without requiring formal authority.
- Outstanding communicator with proven expertise in facilitation and influence, adept at engaging diverse audiences and effectively communicating across all levels—including the executive team—to drive alignment and informed decision making.
- Sense of urgency and commitment to Airbnb's mission of belonging.
- Experience in multiple roles, including working with senior leaders.
A Typical Day:
- Collaborate with technical teams in the identification and effective management of company-wide risks to privacy and the responsible use of technology, and support stakeholders in the development and execution of initiatives to address them.
- Lead definition and implementation of company-wide standards, practices, and patterns to protect and manage personal data in accordance with privacy and AI regulations.
- Work with Legal, Data Science, Data Governance, and InfoSec to introduce Privacy by Design principles in company products and infrastructure, including by leveraging privacy enhancing technologies such as cryptography and anonymization of personal data.
- Create privacy training for technical roles, including data engineers, developers, and data scientists.
Your Expertise:
- 15+ years of total experience, with 5+ years of experience in technical program/project management or privacy engineering focused on building technology products and/or systems.
- Deep understanding of large-scale, “Big Data” data stores and technologies. This includes experience working with data governance/management teams to improve data annotations, lineage and ACLs to drive automation of privacy and compliance requirements through technology, data quality overall and process improvements in data systems at scale.
- Strong familiarity with the AI/ML development lifecycle: from data collection and curation, through model architecture selection, training, testing, A/B testing, and deployment. Must be adept at managing compliance and responsible use challenges throughout this lifecycle.
- Solid understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), Generative AI and AI Agents, including compliance and responsible use challenges arising from their deployment in B2C services, including the techniques used to train, fine-tune, and deploy these technologies to production.
- Strong familiarity with Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), such as various types of encryption, de-identification methods (e.g., k-anonymity, differential privacy), and AI/ML interpretability techniques (e.g., SHAP, LIME).
- Ability to rapidly absorb and apply new technologies and knowledge correctly within the context of regulatory requirements.
- Strong time management and prioritization skills, effectively allocating time and resources to achieve objectives and balancing multiple tasks while ensuring high-quality outputs.
- Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity to achieve goals. Self-motivated, proactive, and capable of adapting to and working with teams operating on different cadences.
- Sound business judgment, proven ability to influence others, strong analytical skills, and a track record of taking ownership, leading data-driven analyses, and influencing results.
- Experience in developing processes from scratch and demonstrated flexibility to successfully execute tasks.
- Detail-oriented, yet able to synthesize the bigger picture, leveraging technical and privacy expertise and problem-solving abilities to prioritize and manage blocking issues.
- Experience working in a highly cross-functional environment (e.g., Engineering, PM, Data Science, Analytics, Design, Operations, Legal, Infrastructure), where the ability to communicate with and influence multiple groups and executive teams is imperative.
- Excellent written and oral business communication and people skills, with the capacity to influence diverse stakeholders at all levels.
- Familiarity with common privacy processes and deliverables (e.g., privacy impact assessments, records of processing). Hands-on experience applying privacy frameworks and a comprehensive understanding of major regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.
Preferred skill-sets:
- 15+ years of total experience, with 7+ years of experience in privacy, trust & safety, compliance, security operations, and technical program management, preferably within a global B2C technology company.
- Professional certifications such as Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM), or AI Governance Professional (AIGP) or equivalent, are preferred but not required.
- BA/BS and/or advanced degree in engineering, computer science, mathematics, statistics, physics, or a related field.
- Experience with programming languages and tools commonly used in AI, such as R, Python and Github.
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.