# Principal Software Engineer, Performance

**Company:** [Airbnb](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/airbnb)
**Location:** Remote
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $292k – $365k/yr
**Experience:** 12+ years
**Skills:** Kubernetes, Docker, AWS, GCP, Azure, Profiling, Instrumentation, Distributed Tracing, SLOs, Jvm, Kernel
**Posted:** 2026-04-17

> Leads Airbnb's performance engineering strategy across full stack including CPU/GPU utilization, backend efficiency, and ML infra. Builds profiling tools, influences company-wide SLOs, and mentors engineers with 12+ years experience in high-scale systems.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities

* Define and drive Airbnb's long-term performance strategy, spanning product performance, infrastructure efficiency, and business objectives for scale and growth
* Lead the architecture and development of performance profiling and instrumentation infrastructure, covering CPU, GPU, memory, request hot paths, utilization, and deployment events, making these capabilities available to all backend teams
* Partner with infrastructure teams across compute, reliability, backend frameworks, and AI Infra to ensure the fleet operates at optimal utilization
* Connect performance outcomes to business objectives and company-wide SLOs, and guide engineering teams in keeping the stack scalable and efficient
* Evaluate emerging hardware and software technologies, engage with the external solutions ecosystem, and advise on build vs. buy decisions in areas of strategic importance
* Mentor and technically uplevel engineers across the organization through design reviews, architectural guidance, and performance best practices

## Requirements

* 12+ years of performance engineering experience in high-scale, high-growth production environments
* Deep understanding of how software and hardware systems interact at scale, including architectural patterns for performance-critical stacks
* Strong familiarity with public cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
* Experience with profiling and instrumentation tooling across CPU, GPU, memory, and distributed request tracing
* Demonstrated ability to define performance objectives and drive delivery against company-wide SLOs across multiple organizations
* Strong communication and influence skills; comfortable driving technical direction with senior engineering and product leadership

## Similar roles

- [Principal Engineer](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/57d02168-c039-490c-af49-7a6decec9595) - Ironclad - San Francisco, CA - $285k – $315k/yr
- [Principal Software Engineer](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/18ce6f42-dade-4877-b790-8f6e88f65ec7) - Astera - Emeryville, CA - $300k – $600k/yr
- [Principal Software Engineer I - Metadata](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/8851fa3b-008f-4f5e-93f9-ca01a0ea30b6) - Snowflake - Menlo Park, CA - $264k – $380k/yr
- [Principal Software Engineer - Snowflake Intelligence](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/160814ee-9a10-4deb-99a4-22b0bc45be91) - Snowflake - Menlo Park, CA - $264k – $380k/yr
- [Principal Software Engineer I - Snowhouse Foundation](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/eab67d12-c617-42e1-9ef4-0e6de3eb7c9c) - Snowflake - Menlo Park, CA - $264k – $380k/yr

**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/993b770a-e79c-45fe-8c30-50713e74cab2
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/993b770a-e79c-45fe-8c30-50713e74cab2