About this role
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 AirCover team is charged with managing and growing the AirCover business inside of Airbnb. We have a responsibility to our community of Hosts and guests to be there when things don’t go exactly as planned with their reservations. We have a lot of work to do in the coming years and we are looking for someone who will help us manage all of the things that need to be done to deliver best-in-class services to our community.
The Difference You Will Make:
As a Vendor Manager focused on operational vendor support, you will own the end-to-end management and performance of a portfolio of third-party partners that deliver critical operational services (e.g., third-party claims adjusting). Applying deep expertise in vendor management, SLA frameworks, and operational risk, you will exercise independent judgment across multiple sources of data to structure trade-off decisions, resolve complex and ambiguous problems, and hold vendors accountable to service, delivery, and cost outcomes for guests and hosts. You will operate with minimal oversight, act as a trusted advisor and resource to less experienced colleagues and internal stakeholders, and may lead vendor management projects or programs that shape how the broader function operates.
A Typical Day:
• Own the day-to-day management and performance oversight of an assigned portfolio of vendors within established team strategy and governance.
• Lead daily/weekly performance forums, synthesizing multiple sources of operational and financial data to diagnose root causes, structure trade-off decisions, and drive action planning and accountability with vendors.
• Act as the escalation point for complex, sensitive, or high-risk vendor issues on behalf of guests and hosts, negotiating resolution and building consensus across cross-functional stakeholders, including at more senior levels.
• Assist in the design and priority of the metrics and trigger/appetite framework used to monitor vendor performance; independently determine when performance issues warrant action plans versus deeper investigation or escalation.
• Use judgment to resolve complex operational issues and recommend trade-offs using established frameworks and data inputs.
• Own the vendor invoice management and financial governance process end-to-end, ensuring alignment with contractual terms and driving process improvements that reduce recurring discrepancies in credits, incentives, and reconciliation.
• Lead quality and calibration programs across the vendor portfolio, structuring action plans to remediate opportunities and