Since the new year, Airbnb ($PRIVATE:AIRBNB) has been on a bit of a hiring spree. On January 10, the company listed 274 job openings, but as of yesterday, it's now hiring for 348 positions. That's a healthy increase of 27% in openings, and it comes as the company readies itself to go public in 2019.

Despite rumors that Airbnb will IPO in a direct offering — offering shares directly to the public rather than going through an investment bank — its job listings still look an awful lot like a technology startup looking to build product and reach. For investors, that's probably a good sign that Airbnb still has its eye on the ball.

As of February 24, openings at the company are heavily concentrated in the engineering category, with 77 such listings. This dwarfs the second-most in-demand category at Airbnb, Community Support, with 27 openings.

However, when comparing job listings from yesterday to those of January 10 — when the hiring spree began — engineering is the only job category at Airbnb that has shown any contraction in terms of open positions. On January 10, Airbnb was hiring 82 engineers - as of yesterday it's hiring the aforementioned 77, a drop in 5 positions.

This could, of course, mean that Airbnb is hiring engineers faster than it's placing the listings. Meanwhile, Operations has seen the largest lift of 8 positions followed by Product.

Job Category

Jan 10

Feb 24

Change

Engineering

82

77

-5

Community Support

22

27

5

Operations

18

26

8

Agency Temp Work

16

22

6

Product

15

22

7

Data Science/Analytics

15

18

3

Employee Experience

14

16

2

Marketing/Communications

13

16

3

Finance/Accounting

10

15

5

Information Technology

10

15

5

Talent

9

14

5

Trust

9

12

3

Design

7

11

4

Luxury Retreats

7

10

3

Public Policy

6

10

4

Legal

5

8

3

Research

5

7

2

Experiences

5

6

1

Samara

2

6

4

Worldwide Sales Operations

2

5

3

Photography

1

3

2

Business Development

1

1

0

In terms of hiring locations, Airbnb remains a Silicon Valley company, with 173 of its 348 positions in San Francisco (up from 146 in January). Beijing openings come in second at 42 (up from 36).

a look at how job opening locations have changed since January 10 reveals that Airbnb has its eyes set on international expansion

But a look at how job opening locations have changed since January 10 reveals that Airbnb has its eyes set on international expansion. New positions in South Africa, Sao Paolo, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Milan have all opened since the new year.

Location Text

Jan 10

Feb 24

Change

San Francisco, CA

146

173

27

Singapore

16

28

12

Dublin, Ireland

13

22

9

Beijing, China

36

42

6

London, United Kingdom

4

9

5

Seattle, WA, United States

6

9

3

Paris, France

2

5

3

Berlin, Germany

1

4

3

Portland, OR

9

11

2

Seoul, South Korea

2

4

2

South Africa

0

2

2

Sao Paolo, Brazil

0

2

2

Montréal, Quebec, Canada

9

10

1

Shanghai

0

1

1

Chengdu, China

0

1

1

Milan, Italy

0

1

1

Tokyo, Japan

6

6

0

Los Angeles, CA, United States

5

5

0

Barcelona, Spain

4

4

0

Amsterdam, Netherlands

1

1

0

Guangzhou Shi, Guangdong, China

1

1

0

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

1

1

0

Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

1

0

-1

Miami, FL, United States

1

0

-1

Remote

10

4

-6

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