Engineering Manager, Core Foundation

Airbnb•San Francisco, CA

22h•Remote

About The Position

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: Core Foundation is a cross‑platform team in Product Foundation that empowers product engineers to build high‑quality, performant features across Android, iOS, and Web. We focus on: Insights & Logging, Performance & App Health, and Feature Architecture, partnering closely with Platform (iOS/Android/Web), Analytics Infrastructure, Data Platform, and peer Product Foundation teams to provide cohesive paved paths and standards at scale. The Difference You Will Make: You will lead the team that underpins Airbnb’s foundation solutions for client applications with the instrumentation, performance guardrails, architecture patterns, and developer‑friendly platforms that make durable, scalable product development the default. Your leadership will: Define the long term direction for client foundations and shape how product engineering is done across Airbnb. Drive adoption of consistent, cross‑platform architecture and best practices for feature development. Uplevel performance and app health through guardrails, proactive insights, and paved‑path tooling that shorten feedback loops for product teams. Provide a unified, high‑quality event logging experience that enables reliable, data‑driven decisions across surfaces and platforms. A Typical Day: Set vision and multi year tech direction for Core Foundation and translate them into clear roadmaps and measurable outcomes. Drive alignment across Platform, Backend and Data and is accountable for influencing shared standards. Partner with iOS/Android/Web Platform, Analytics Infrastructure, Data Platform, and peer Product Foundation teams to align standards, integrate capabilities, and remove friction for product engineers. Guide technical staff to enable lint/compilation rules, observability defaults, configuration patterns and drive adoption via documentation, enablement, and hands‑on support. Review designs for foundational systems, balancing near‑term delivery with long‑term maintainability and cross-platform consistency. Manage operations and execution excellence: staffing, prioritization, delivery predictability, incident learnings, and iterative quality improvements. Recruit, coach, and develop a high‑performing, inclusive team culture; grow senior technical leaders and future managers.

Requirements

10+ years of industry experience with 5+ years in engineering management; demonstrated success leading cross‑functional or cross‑platform foundation/platform teams.
Proven track record establishing client‑side performance/health practices and observability, and driving adoption of paved‑path tooling and standards at scale.
Hands‑on background in at least one client platform (iOS, Android, or Web) with fluency in modern app and feature architecture patterns; comfort collaborating across all three.
Experience building or stewarding event logging/instrumentation platforms and improving data quality for analytics and experimentation.
Strong cross‑org influence and stakeholder management with Platform, Product, Design, and Data partners; clear, persuasive written and verbal communication.
Commitment to inclusive leadership, talent development, and building psychologically safe, high‑ownership teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience with cross‑platform consistency initiatives (e.g., shared patterns, naming, and capabilities) and developer experience investments that accelerate product velocity.
Familiarity with configuration and server‑driven paradigms and their impact on client architecture and experimentation workflows.

Responsibilities

Set vision and multi year tech direction for Core Foundation and translate them into clear roadmaps and measurable outcomes.
Drive alignment across Platform, Backend and Data and is accountable for influencing shared standards.
Partner with iOS/Android/Web Platform, Analytics Infrastructure, Data Platform, and peer Product Foundation teams to align standards, integrate capabilities, and remove friction for product engineers.
Guide technical staff to enable lint/compilation rules, observability defaults, configuration patterns and drive adoption via documentation, enablement, and hands‑on support.
Review designs for foundational systems, balancing near‑term delivery with long‑term maintainability and cross-platform consistency.
Manage operations and execution excellence: staffing, prioritization, delivery predictability, incident learnings, and iterative quality improvements.
Recruit, coach, and develop a high‑performing, inclusive team culture; grow senior technical leaders and future managers.