Senior 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 Chief Business Officer organization drives company-wide growth and global expansion.

This is the role that turns Airbnbs ambition for the UKI & Nordics into a plan and holds the organisation to delivering it: shaping strategy aligning cross-functional teams and driving sustainable commercial growth across one of our most important regions.

This includes recruiting and supporting high-quality Stays Experiences and Services alongside executing Airbnbs global market strategy. Shaping business approaches quality supply sourcing and international growth efforts are integral to the teams success in connecting millions more hosts and guests to Airbnbs platform.

You will join the UKI Nordics Middle East and Africa team covering one of Airbnbs largest and most mature markets alongside five of Europes most digitally advanced high-trust travel markets. The UK offers scale brand strength and a sophisticated regulatory environment; the Nordics offer strong domestic travel behaviour and significant headroom for growth. Together they make this one of the most commercially interesting regions in EMEA to build in.

You will own the business operations agenda for the UKI and Nordics. Airbnbs most established European market alongside five high-potential Nordic markets (Sweden Denmark Norway Finland). Partnering closely with the Country Manager you will set the regional growth strategy translate it into a plan cross-functional teams can execute against and run the operating rhythm that keeps it on track. This is a high-visibility role: your influence will come from the quality of your thinking and your ability to mobilise teams to grow further.

• Own the UKI & Nordics growth strategy end to end: define where the region should compete what it should stop doing and the handful of bets that will move guest nights supply growth and revenue.
• Build the annual and quarterly plan with the Country Manager sizing opportunities and making explicit recommendations on where to deploy marketing spend supply investment and partnership effort.
• Set and pressure-test the regions targets translating global goals into market-level commitments that supply marketing partnerships policy and product teams can own.
• Run deep-dive analyses on demand and supply dynamics competitive movements pricing and seasonality turning each into a clear recommendation not just a read-out.
• Identify and stand up new growth initiatives using the UK as a test market for offerings that can then scale across EMEA and the Nordics as a proving ground for high-penetration low-friction market plays.
• Build the case for investment in the region: sizing business case and the socialisation needed to win resource in global planning cycles.

• Own the regions operating cadence: weekly monthly and quarterly business reviews so leadership has a single trusted view of performance and the story behind it.
• Convert strategy into sequenced execution plans with named owners milestones and success measures across supply marketing partnerships policy and product.
• Track delivery against the plan surfacing risks and bottlenecks early and driving them to resolution rather than escalating them.
• Design and continuously improve the operating processes the region runs on raising the bar on efficiency transparency and decision speed.
• Lead the regions input into global planning and resource allocation cycles.

• Act as the connective tissue between the UKI & Nordics team and global functions such as Product Marketing Communications Policy Finance Data Science Legal and Community Support.
• Be the go-to decision partner alongside the Country Manager: the person other teams come to for the regions position context and priorities.
• Build alignment on high-priority projects market launches and product tests brokering trade-offs between global consistency and local market reality.
• Represent UKI & Nordics in NEMEA and global business operations forums and bring the best of what other markets are doing back into the region.
• Partner with Public Policy on the regulatory landscape including short-term let rules in the UKI and Nordic city regulation so commercial plans account for policy risk and opportunity.

• Turn complex data into clear narratives that help leadership decide with a recommendation attached.
• Build the reporting layer the region relies on: dashboards performance packs and executive materials working with a dedicated analyst.
• Establish the metrics that matter for the region and hold the team to a shared definition of success.
• Champion data-driven decision-making and use AI tooling to compress the time from question to insight. Automating recurring analysis and reporting so the team spends its time on judgement not assembly.

To deliver in this role Airbnb is seeking candidates with:

• 12 years in business operations strategy consulting or commercial leadership with a track record of owning outcomes in a market or business unit
• Demonstrated ability to set strategy and drive it through to execution
• Deep experience influencing without authority across a global matrixed organisation
• Strong analytical toolkit; comfortable working with finance and data science partners and interrogating the numbers yourself
• Exceptional written and verbal communication with executive presence in front of senior leadership
• Comfort with ambiguity and a strong bias toward action and ownership
• Practical fluency with AI tools and a view on where they change how a team operates
• Familiarity with the UKI and/or Nordic markets or comparable mature-market experience

• Experience in a two-sided marketplace travel/hospitality or consumer tech
• Experience launching or scaling new products or lines of business in-market
• This role will require to be in the London office 3 days per week.

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.