Business Process Improvement Manager

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 Community You Will Join:

The Business Process Improvement team focuses on improving processes across all Community Support. Our team is a global team of process improvement professionals, who help bring cross functional partners from across CS and Airbnb together to operationalize new processes, analyze current process for improvement opportunities, and scale solutions across a global network. We follow general business process engineering principles and practices, as well as leveraging Lean Six Sigma methodologies in our improvement projects.

The Difference You Will Make:

The Business Process Manager will be a senior individual contributor within the Service Optimization team, part of the Community Service Organization. This role advances the team's process engineering discipline by designing systems where problems do not occur, rather than only improving processes that already exist. The Business Process Manager delivers through deep individual expertise: applying systems thinking, engineering processes for AI-readiness and automation by default, and building AI prototypes to test and validate new process designs before full implementation. This is a role for a senior level practitioner who operates at the intersection of process engineering, systems design, and applied AI.

A Typical Day:

• Develop business strategies within Service Optimization and Community Support across people, process, and technology.
• Lead the operationalization of strategies across Community Support and other cross functional teams such as Policy, Finance, and Product.
• Lead complex, large-scale, cross-functional process engineering initiatives from problem definition through measurable outcomes, applying the full suite of Lean Six Sigma tools and a structured process engineering framework across four disciplines: understanding the problem and its system context, designing reliable and measurable solutions, grounding those solutions in operational reality, and evolving them as conditions change.
• Apply and coach others to apply a systems thinking lens to every problem: map full upstream and downstream context before prescribing solutions, identifying where the real problem lives rather than where it surfaces.
• Design processes for AI-readiness and automation by default, engineering every future state around three standards: does it reduce agent and customer burden, is it measurable from day one, and can it be automated or self-correcting over time.
• Build AI prototypes to communicate and validate process designs, using AI tools, workflow automation platforms, and lightweight modeling approaches to test the viability of new process architectures before committing to full implementation.
• Use process simulation to model how a designed process will behave under real-world conditions, stress-testing assumptions about volume, variation, and failure modes before a design is deployed.
• Develop and continuously improve process designs of Community Support experiences that document the full interaction across the customer journey, agent processes, product features, and policies, informing multi-year roadmap planning.
• Implement process measurement systems from the start of every design: establish KPIs, deploy statistical process control methods, and track outcomes post-launch to confirm improvements hold.
• Lead change management for process transitions, ensuring new designs are adopted effectively by agents, teams, and partners and that improvements are sustained over time.
• Build and scale process engineering competency, systems thinking, and AI-ready design, contributing to capability building across the team.
• Partner with Product and Technology teams to translate process requirements into tooling specifications, ensuring AI and other product capabilities are engineered around how agents and customers actually work.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Data Analytics, and Operations to align priorities and drive trade-off decisions grounded in data.
• Communicate progress and findings to senior leadership, distilling complex analysis into clear narratives with a line of sight to measurable outcomes

Your Expertise:

• Preferred Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Engineering, Engineering, or a related field.
• 10+ years of post-graduate experience in operations, process management, or process improvement, with at least 7 years in a customer support operations environment (preferred).
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certified or equivalent process engineering expertise. Additional consideration given to Agile, service design, and Industrial and Systems Engineering experience.
• Demonstrated ability to build AI prototypes and proof-of-concept workflow automations: practical experience using AI tools, no-code or low-code platforms, or scripting to test and validate process designs before full implementation.
• Demonstrated mastery to design processes for AI-readiness and automation, engineering systems that evolve with AI capabilities rather than simply optimizing existing workflows.
• Proven experience applying systems thinking to process design, identifying root causes upstream and tracing impacts downstream before prescribing solutions.
• Advanced statistical and data-driven analytical skills, including statistical process control methods, regression analysis, and measurement system analysis.
• Experience using process simulation tools to model process behavior, test design assumptions, and predict outcomes under varying conditions prior to implementation.
• Demonstrated experience driving organizational change, including stakeholder alignment, communication planning, and adoption measurement.
• Proven ability to interact and communicate with people at all levels of the organization, including senior leadership, in an open and transparent manner.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders, demonstrating the ability to influence, structure arguments clearly, and drive alignment to measurable outcomes without formal authority.
• Demonstrated focus on end-to-end customer journey and customer-centric outcomes.
• Prior experience developing business processes in customer support operating models that balance multiple stakeholder interests.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity with creative problem-solving, strong analytical skills, and a pragmatic sense of how to get things done.
• Proactive and autonomous: able to manage multiple complex initiatives simultaneously with minimal direction.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to travel up to 20% of time.

Your Location:

This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While the position is Remote Eligible, you must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. Click here for the up-to-date list of excluded states. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from.

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: reasonableaccommodations@airbnb.com. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process.

We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Airbnb values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Airbnb are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic.

How We'll Take Care of You:

Our job titles may span more than one career level. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.

Reasonable Accommodations: We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.

A Note on Recruiting Scams: Scammers sometimes pose as Airbnb recruiters to get money or personal information from candidates. A few things that will always be true for Airbnb’s hiring process: our open roles are posted on Airbnb’s Career’s Page at careers.airbnb.com, and our recruiters correspond only from @airbnb.com or @ext.airbnb.com email addresses. Our recruiters will never ask for your Social Security number, bank account details, passport, or payment app information while you are interviewing. We’ll also never ask you to pay a fee, send money, deposit or cash a check, or purchase work-related equipment (such as a company laptop) during the interview process. We encourage candidates to remain vigilant of these recruiting scams and not share sensitive information if you do not believe an individual is actually affiliated with Airbnb.