Senior Programs & Business Operations Lead

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 Experiences team is responsible for scaling a curated, high-quality supply of unique activities hosted by local creators, iconic businesses, and operators worldwide and we're at an inflection point.

How we surface Experiences is one of the biggest untapped demand levers we have. Recent signals (manual ranking outperforming the algorithm in places) point to a real gap: no one owns the demand-side merchandising strategy that sits on top of ranking. This role fills that gap. It is a biz ops and product ops hybrid focused on discoverability and merchandising: what we surface, to whom, and when.

As a Senior Business Operations Lead, you will own the merchandising strategy, partner deeply with Supply, Product, and Engineering on ranking and personalization, and build the reporting layer that tells us whether discoverability is improving. This role sits closer to Product and Eng than the other demand roles, so comfort driving a senior product partnership and influencing a technical roadmap is essential.

You will report to the Director of Business Growth for Experiences and collaborate closely with others, including our SEM/SEO/Display lead, to ensure channel strategies are coherent and non-duplicative.

Own merchandising & discoverability strategy

• Define the demand-side merchandising strategy on top of ranking: placement, sequencing, and the logic for what surfaces to which guests

• Push for dynamic, context-aware ranking (day of week, availability, trends, market, traveler type) and represent the demand point of view in that roadmap

• Prioritize experiments that improve discoverability and translate results into decisions

Partner with Product, Eng & Supply

• Serve as the senior demand counterpart to Product and Engineering on matching, personalization, and ranking

• Clarify where merchandising is a demand mandate vs. a supply/product mandate, and drive alignment on ownership

• Keep the product-to-ops conversation active, including through periods of reduced Product coverage

Build the reporting layer

• Stand up dashboards and measurement for discoverability, spotlights, and placement performance

• Close analytics and tooling gaps that limit how fast the team can learn and iterate

• Bring a data-driven point of view on where merchandising investment pays off

• 12+ years in business operations, product operations, or strategy, ideally at a marketplace or consumer platform

• Strong analytical foundation: comfortable in the data, building measurement, and turning insight into operating decisions

• Proven experience partnering with Product and Engineering on ranking, search, personalization, or merchandising

• Able to navigate ambiguity