NextStay Fellow, Tech Ops & Programs

The community you will join:

Airbnb's mission is to create a world where people can Belong Anywhere. We're seeking a NextStay Fellow to help pursue that mission as a hands-on Technical Program Manager (TPM) in our engineering organization.

The NextStay Fellowship is a launchpad: you'll join with a strong program management foundation and grow into the full scope and ambiguity of the role, supported by experienced TPMs and engineering partners invested in your success.

A typical day:

• Lead execution of a project with a defined scope and approach, turning direction from your manager or senior TPMs into a concrete, realistic plan built around known constraints.
• Break work into trackable pieces and use input and output metrics to monitor progress, surfacing slippage before it becomes a problem.
• Lead alignment of the project team and hold contributors accountable to deliverables and milestones, while anticipating the next set of work.
• Consult team members or leaders to identify risks and mitigation options; track and manage risks you've already identified through to resolution.
• Communicate the project's vision and success criteria clearly to your project team and stakeholders, and re-evaluate strategy with guidance from leadership on when to pivot versus stay the course.
• Ask the right questions to surface potential technical gaps, working collaboratively with engineers and applying a working understanding of sound technical principles.
• Actively participate in cultural and functional excellence activities—such as Connect apprenticeship (curriculum contribution, mentorship), diversity and inclusion programming (Airfinity, Blocking Bias training), or hackathons—and demonstrate Airbnb's core values in everyday interactions.

The difference you will make:

As a NextStay Fellow you'll own execution of technical programs spanning multiple engineering, product, and operations teams over several quarters — turning objectives set with your manager and senior TPMs into milestones, delivery plans, and team alignment. Working under the guidance of senior TPMs, you'll hold the program accountable to deliverables while managing scope, schedule, and quality trade-offs, re-planning proactively as conditions change and escalating the decisions that carry real business risk.

Core manager competencies include:

• Scope Management – Partners with the team to define boundaries and milestones against program objectives, enabling informed trade-off conversations and preventing scope creep across teams.
• Schedule Management – Breaks work into sized, sequenced pieces with clear dependencies, builds a schedule with technical partners, and communicates changes as they arise.
• Quality – Establishes the expected level of quality during planning and treats it as a fixed constraint alongside schedule and scope.
• Communication – Keeps stakeholders informed early and often, especially when unexpected issues occur.
• Stakeholder Management – Identifies stakeholders, listens to their concerns, and sets expectations appropriately throughout the project.
• Risk Identification – Surfaces upstream and downstream dependencies and risks early, analyzing them within the context of the overall plan.
• Risk Mitigation – Aligns the team on the mitigations that matter most and executes the recommended path with senior TPMs, so the team can respond calmly if a risk materializes.

Eligibility Requirements: We are honored to support transitioning service members. To be considered for this fellowship, please ensure you meet the following criteria:

• You are an active-duty service member currently enrolled in the USSOCOM Warrior Care Program, Career Transition Internship, or a similar program. (Please note: DoD SkillBridge participants are not eligible at this time).
•  You are able to begin your Career Transition Fellowship by November 2026 and complete at least 120 days of the program before your military transition.
•  You are within 180 days of your military transition (separation, ETS, or retirement) at the time of your fellowship starts.
•  You can provide written approval from your chain of command authorizing your participation before final selection.

Your expertise:

• Experience: Typically 2 years of relevant experience, with a BS or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent experience. Most TPMs spend roughly 2.5 to 4 years at this level, with a minimum of one year before progressing, before moving into a role with more ambiguity and scope.
• Program Management: Able to build a solid, realistic plan based on identified constraints and track progress using input and output metrics. Comfortable managing scope, schedule, and quality trade-offs, and open to on-the-job training and guidance on prioritization early on.
• Risk Management: Surfaces upstream and downstream dependencies and risks early, aligns the team on how to reduce the impact of the ones that matter most, and drives identified risks through to resolution — partnering with senior TPMs on the recommended path so the team can respond calmly if a risk materializes.
• Technical Judgment: Comfortable working collaboratively with engineers; asks the right questions to surface technical gaps and applies sound technical judgement to evaluate solutions and tradeoffs. 
• Communication & Leadership: Exchanges information clearly and seeks clarification when needed. Communicates project vision and success criteria effectively to the project team and stakeholders. Strong written and verbal communicator who can answer questions directly related to their project, and manages the project team to deliverables and milestones.
• Ownership: Takes ownership of programs and drives them forward, exercising sound judgment on when to resolve independently versus when to escalate  and partnering with senior TPMs on the decisions that carry real risk.

Our commitment to inclusion & belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the best and brightest people from the broadest talent pool possible. We believe a diversity of ideas fosters innovation and engagement, and allows us to attract the best people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. If you need assistance, or a reasonable accommodation during the application and recruiting process, please let your recruiter know.

Important information about full-time opportunities:

We cannot guarantee that this project will turn into a full time position. Full-time employment is dependent on headcount availability and business hiring needs. However, we would love to introduce you to the world of Airbnb and other tech companies within our network, as you transition out of the NextStay Program.