Senior Programs & Business Operations Lead, Airbnb Services

Airbnb Airbnb · Consumer · United States · Business Operations/Analysis

This role is for a Senior Programs & Business Operations Lead at Airbnb, focusing on the global expansion and scaling of new service categories within the travel-adjacent market. The position requires strong strategic planning, program execution, cross-functional leadership, and analytical skills, including SQL proficiency, to drive business growth and operational efficiency.

What you'd actually do

  1. Develop and implement end-to-end program plans for the launch and scaling of new service categories. Drive go-to-market planning and execution across geographies, ensuring operational readiness and alignment with business objectives.
  2. Serve as a connective leader across Business Operations, Market Management, and Product Pods. Drive alignment among engineering, design, marketing, and legal teams toward shared targets, often without direct authority, by building strong relationships and leveraging strategic insights.
  3. Leverage advanced analytical skills, including writing SQL queries, to independently extract insights from raw data. Build financial models, size market opportunities, and establish rigorous KPIs (e.g., revenue, conversion, quality) to inform fast, test-and-learn iterations and drive data-driven decision-making.
  4. Evaluate and execute supply sourcing strategies for emerging categories, assessing whether to acquire supply through individual local hosts or by structuring partnerships to accelerate time-to-market and scaling.
  5. Build the operational foundation required to scale new service categories. Identify bottlenecks in the funnel, develop contingency plans for risks, translate local market feedback into scalable requirements, and continuously improve processes and systems for efficiency.

Skills

Required

  • 12+ years of experience in business operations, program management, or strategy roles within high-growth businesses
  • SQL proficiency

Nice to have

  • Marketplace experience, particularly within a digital company

What the JD emphasized

  • build and scale new businesses or programs
  • proven track record of driving cross-functional alignment
  • operationalize the plan
  • standing up programs
  • building processes
  • driving execution in complex global markets
  • Highly analytical and data-driven
  • SQL proficiency is required
  • independently pull data
  • run complex analyses
  • distill insights
  • translate them into clear, actionable business strategies and plans
  • Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills
  • influence executive leadership
  • drive accountability across diverse, cross-functional teams
  • Expertise in driving collaboration across diverse teams
  • Comfortable navigating ambiguity and fast-paced environments
  • strategic thinker with the creativity to design novel business models, incentive structures, and operational frameworks
  • Capable of developing tools and systems to enhance processes
  • interpreting business risks
  • recommending best practices to drive operational efficiency at scale