Technical Sourcer (Contract)

The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world's leading independent platform for digital advertising, with over 3,000 employees across more than 30 offices. Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet - from streaming TV and podcasts to mobile apps, news, and more. Advertising powers the content people love. By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. The world's brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly. The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges - from processing massive datasets in real time to building systems that operate reliably on a global scale. When you work here, your impact is worldwide. We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another. If you're driven to solve meaningful challenges, we'd love to meet you.As a Technical Sourcer, you'll be a strategic talent advisor who shapes the pipeline behind our next generation of platform and product innovation. You'll partner directly with recruiters, hiring managers, and engineering leaders to identify exceptional technical talent, deliver market intelligence, and influence how The Trade Desk competes for talent in an AI-accelerated hiring landscape.This role is built for someone who thrives on autonomy, creative problem-solving, data-informed decision-making, and building authentic relationships with hard-to-reach technical talent. You'll be part of a global Talent Acquisition team responsible for top-of-funnel strategy and execution, with the opportunity to drive sourcing approaches, tools, and continuous improvement.What You'll Do * Develop and execute customized sourcing strategies (by role, level, and location) to identify and engage top technical talent, including software engineers, ML/AI specialists and data engineers * Partner closely with recruiters, coordinators, and hiring managers to deeply understand role requirements, team dynamics, and their impact on the company and product * Become an expert in telling The Trade Desk story - the mission of the open internet, the engineering challenges we solve, and our values-driven culture * Craft thoughtful, personalized outreach that resonates with passive and highly specialized technical talent, cultivating long-term relationships with high-priority prospects * Serve as a strategic talent advisor - providing market insights, calibrating candidate profiles, and recommending adjustments to hiring criteria based on real-time data * Deliver timely pipeline updates, flexing strategy as hiring plans evolve * Conduct talent market research, competitive intelligence, and industry mapping to advise hiring managers and recruiters on market conditions, compensation benchmarks, and talent availability * Leverage AI-enabled research tools, automation workflows, and emerging sourcing technologies to improve pipeline quality and efficiency * Build and maintain talent maps for critical skill areas, tracking emerging talent pools across academia, open-source communities, and industry * Maintain organized candidate data in ATS and CRM systems, ensuring exceptional stakeholder and candidate experience throughout the funnelWho You Are * 5+ years of experience in technical sourcing or technical recruiting for software, product-driven, or AI/ML companies - or equivalent agency recruiting experience focused on engineering talent * Demonstrable success sourcing and engaging highly specialized technical talent at a premier tech company, high-growth startup, or leading SaaS organization * Deep proficiency with sourcing platforms and tools - LinkedIn Recruiter, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Boolean search, ATS/CRM systems (e.g., Greenhouse, Lever, Workday), and AI-assisted sourcing tools * Ability to understand technical concepts (e.g., distribut