Principal Software Engineer - Performance Advertising

Job Description

About the Role We are looking for a highly motivated Senior Software Engineer – Performance Advertising Platforms with 4–7 years of experience in building large-scale, low-latency ad tech systems, ideally within performance DSPs, SSPs, or other programmatic advertising platforms. The ideal candidate takes full ownership of their work, thrives in cross-functional collaboration, and is passionate about optimizing campaign performance through high-throughput, real-time systems. In this role, you will design and develop core components for deal execution, optimization, and attribution, mentor junior engineers, and contribute to delivering impactful performance advertising solutions that drive measurable business outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and optimize low-latency, fault-tolerant real-time systems for ad serving, bidding, and performance optimization.
• Develop high-throughput data pipelines for click, conversion, and attribution events using Kafka, Spark, or Flink.
• Implement real-time bidding algorithms, pacing, budget management, and supply path optimizations.
• Work with deal curation and audience targeting components, integrating with forecasting and attribution services.
• Develop backend services and APIs for activation, reporting, and optimization workflows.
• Collaborate with ML engineers to productionize models (e.g., bid shading, contextual bandits, reach forecasting).
• Integrate with major programmatic protocols (OpenRTB, VAST, CTV-specific standards).
• Ensure data quality, governance, and privacy compliance across the performance advertising stack.
• Perform code reviews, latency tuning, and troubleshoot distributed system issues at scale.
• Drive innovation by evaluating and implementing new ad tech tools, auction strategies, and optimization frameworks.

Skills and Requirements

• 4–7 years of experience in software engineering with a focus on ad tech / performance advertising systems.
• Strong programming skills in Java or Scala (Python a plus).
• Hands-on experience with real-time streaming frameworks (Kafka Streams, Flink, Spark Streaming) and distributed systems.
• Familiarity with programmatic advertising protocols (OpenRTB, VAST) and campaign delivery workflows.
• Proficiency in SQL and experience with large-scale analytics platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery, or similar).
• Practical experience in low-latency system design and performance tuning.
• Exposure to attribution modeling, incrementality measurement, and performance KPIs (CPA, ROAS, CTR, CVR).
• Understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and distributed architecture.
• Experience working closely with product managers, data scientists, and analytics teams in ad tech.
• Proven ability to own projects end-to-end and deliver high-quality, scalable solutions.

We are a company committed to creating diverse and inclusive environments where people can bring their full, authentic selves to work every day. We are an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer that believes everyone matters. Qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry, genetic factors, age, disability, protected veteran status, military or uniformed service member status, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to [email protected].