Associate Principal, SOX Analytics

The Community You Will Join:

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced forward thinking Analytics Engineer professional to join the Financial Controls team. The ideal candidate will be responsible for leveraging data analytics, AI and tooling to build automations around the SOX program, including operational program management, SOX control testing, and reporting. You will play a crucial role in building the long term vision, enhancing our risk assessment capabilities and executing efficient testing under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.  

The Difference You Will Make:

The role requires a well-rounded controls focused professional with analytics, systems, infrastructure and operational expertise. In addition, excellent communication, conceptional SOX knowledge, ability to identify and assess risk and apply audit methodologies is required.  The position reports to the Principal, Technical SOX Compliance Lead that rolls up to the Director, Financial Risk & Controls.

A Typical Day:

• Work closely with the testing team to reimagine how we can use data-driven approaches to test the operating effectiveness of controls.
• Analyze large volumes of data from various sources in order to build automated transaction testing, risk assessments, or issue investigation to determine the root cause and potential impact to financial controls.
• Build internal tooling, automation applications with real time monitoring that streamline the SOX control program Leverage agentic AI and large language models to analyze unstructured data for SOX testing.
• Validate the integrity, accuracy and reliability of data through the implementation of data validation and quality control processes
• Identify opportunities for process improvements and recommend data-driven solutions to help reduce manual efforts in executing the SOX testing program
• Stay up-to-date with the latest trends, tools and techniques in data analytics and AI, and implement best practices within the team

Your Expertise:

• Bachelor’s degree. MS in Computer Science a plus.
• Understanding and experience of 9 plus years with Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Section 404, COSO framework and PCAOB standards, and operational audit standards
• Knowledge of technology marketplace environments including both 3rd party and distributed home-grown systems
• Understanding of a service oriented platform architecture 
• Experience with external auditor requirements and expectations
• Strong organizational skills and process-oriented with the ability to define and execute projects with limited guidance and unclear scope
• Experience forming strong working relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders within and outside of Finance
• Ability to communicate clearly and persuasively through both written and verbal formats
• Strong quantitative skills and ability to analyze complex data to distill insights and provide business recommendations
• Proficiency with the following skills and tools: SQL, Python, data modeling, data extraction, data analysis and visualization via Tableau and other internal tools
• Comfortable working with AI coding assistants to accelerate development of analytics and automation tooling.
• Monitor the performance and failures of automated workflows and continuously iterate on tooling, logic to improve accuracy, coverage, and efficiency of the SOX program 
• Proven track record of delivering successful data analytics and automation projects that drive business value
• Ability to work collaboratively with people at all levels of the organization, identify risks and anticipate questions, and provide actionable recommendations based on industry best practices and use influence to ensure execution
• Role model for Airbnb core values

Good to Have:

• Proficiency in AI/LLM tooling, including prompt engineering, API integration with models such as Claude or GPT-4, and building AI-assisted workflows for audit and controls testing
• Experience building lightweight web applications or internal tools using Python frameworks (e.g., Flask, FastAPI) or other frameworks to automate manual audit processes for SOX program

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.