[Hiring] Staff Experience Designer @Airbnb

Role Description

As a Staff Experience Designer supporting international expansion initiatives, you will partner with cross-regional partners (country managers, localization experts, researchers, product specialists, engineers, data scientists, etc.) to craft beautiful, usable, forward-looking products that empower people.

Our design charter is to help foster an emotional connection with our community, keeping usability and accessibility as our prime virtues. We do our best to practice inclusive design at every turn, spanning across online and offline experiences we create for our Host and Guest communities.

As a Staff Experience Designer, you will play a critical role in shaping how Airbnb shows up in markets across APAC and globally. You will help ensure our global products feel truly local—adapting core experiences to regional needs while feeding market insights back into the broader product strategy. Sitting at the intersection of product, design, and regional strategy, you will work across time zones and functions to define and deliver an international roadmap that spans both tactical UI improvements and larger strategic bets. You will bring a high bar for visual and interaction design craft, model AI-enabled ways of working, and provide design leadership in a space that is growing in complexity and impact for Airbnb globally. The Staff Experience Designer is an individual contributor (IC) role that will report to a Manager or Director of Experience Design.

A typical day:

• Lead the design of multiple international initiatives — define design strategy, objectives and set the vision for the holistic user experience; lead detailed design execution with systematic thinking and bar-lifting craft.
• Support and shape the evolution of the Airbnb platform from a design perspective through international lenses; ensure consistency with, and contribute to, our brand architecture and product architecture.
• Partner with Country Managers, Product Managers, Engineers, Data Scientists, Researchers, Localization Managers and Writers to define problems & goals, map user flows, prototype interactions, and launch new products and services.
• Influence global leadership and stakeholder decision making through a clear point of view via vivid storytelling, help the team navigate ambiguity, define and solve complex problems for a global audience.
• Scope projects (in partnership with DPMs, PMs and engineers) and help define the design process, task allocation, and timeline.
• Provide indirect leadership and mentorship for peer designers through in-depth interaction and visual design critiques; evangelize design thinking and best practices across functions.

Qualifications

• Designer/Design Leader with 10+ years of experience.
• Demonstrates the ability to independently formulate design directions and processes, while effectively leading and mentoring teams through execution.
• A strategic thought leader adept at guiding teams through ambiguity, establishing clear visions, and driving design strategies for global products.
• A systems-oriented thinker capable of looking beyond digital interfaces to design comprehensive, holistic online and offline user experiences.
• Exhibits exceptional craftsmanship, underpinned by advanced interaction and visual design capabilities.
• Possesses strong analytical acumen and deep empathy, with a proven track record of synthesizing user insights into optimal solutions and actionable design milestones.
• Excellent storytelling, presentation, and communication skills, coupled with adept stakeholder management abilities.
• Experience in end-to-end product development (from conception to launch) or spearheading the redesign of major product elements, including the application and evolution of mature design systems.
• Comprehensive understanding of technological capabilities, business objectives, and user needs, alongside their respective opportunities and constraints.