Principal Software Engineer, Performance
Core
Define and drive Airbnb's long-term performance strategy for infrastructure efficiency, product performance, and business objectives at scale.
Role type
Principal Software Engineer, Performance (Strategy & Architecture)
Builds
Performance profiling and instrumentation infrastructure for CPU, GPU, memory, and distributed request tracing.
Domain
Cloud Infrastructure / High-Scale Systems / AI Infrastructure
Deliverable
production ML models | infrastructure
Required skills
Performance engineering at scale, system architecture (CPU/GPU/kernel/JVM), cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure), container orchestration (Docker/Kubernetes), profiling and instrumentation tooling, SLO definition, organizational influence, technical mentorship.
Preferred skills
None explicitly stated.
Technologies
CPU, GPU, memory, distributed request tracing, AWS, GCP, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes.
Responsibilities
Define and drive long-term performance strategy; Lead architecture of performance profiling and instrumentation infrastructure; Partner with infrastructure teams to ensure optimal fleet utilization; Connect performance outcomes to business objectives and company-wide SLOs; Evaluate emerging hardware/software and advise on build vs. buy decisions; Mentor and uplevel engineers across the organization.
Seniority
Principal, strategy & mentorship
