Senior Software Engineer - Price Optimization & Bidding

Overview

The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with hundreds of employees across multiple 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 support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. 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. If you’re driven to solve meaningful challenges, we’d love to meet you.

Do you have a passion for solving hard problems at scale? Are you eager to join a dynamic, globally connected team where your contributions will make a meaningful difference in building a better media ecosystem? Fortune magazine consistently ranks The Trade Desk among the best small- to medium-sized workplaces globally.

About the Role

The Performance Automation team develops optimization tools that enhance clients’ advertising campaign outcomes, ensuring they meet or surpass their KPIs. You will enhance machine learning model development by creating tools and frameworks that enable quicker iteration and refinement of models by data scientists, from building ETLs that process petabytes of data to experimenting with novel training architectures. You will integrate models into our bidding infrastructure, where low latency and high performance are paramount; your code will run millions of times per second on datacenters worldwide.

You will also develop and improve debugging and analytical tools for monitoring and adjusting the bidding system in real time. Use these tools to quickly identify and address issues, improving campaign efficiency and ensuring effective use of budgets and resources. Our software engineers participate actively in all aspects of designing, building, and delivering products for our clients.

We have dozens of mission-focused teams working across a wide spectrum of technological challenges. Depending on your interests and aptitude, you will have opportunities to work on large-scale distributed systems, petabyte-scale data challenges, machine learning, advanced visualizations, and interactive user interfaces.

Responsibilities

• Develop optimization tools and frameworks to accelerate model development and deployment.
• Build ETL pipelines processing large-scale data for training and experimentation.
• Integrate ML models into high-performance bidding infrastructure with low latency requirements.
• Design and implement debugging and analytics tools for real-time monitoring of the bidding system.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design, build, and deliver client-focused software products.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of demonstrated success in software development within high-scale enterprise environments.
• Hands-on experience with multiple platforms and technologies, including PyTorch, TensorFlow, Spark, .NET Core, Java, SQL Server, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, Azure.
• Excellent understanding of Agile development methodology and practices.
• Understanding of designing Service-Oriented architectures.
• Exposure to machine learning concepts and frameworks (a plus, but not required).
• Experience in building distributed systems and microservices.

Key Attributes

• A sustained track record of significant, self-directed, end-to-end contributions to large software projects with ability to understand the "why" behind work.
• Strong engineering fundamentals; able to evaluate solutions from first principles and adapt to a unique environment.
• Experience developing web services and building always-on systems across diverse technologies.
• Product-focused mindset with ability to contribute to discovering what will delight clients and push forward a vision of openness and evidence-based decision-making.
• Confidence, leadership, and willingness to defend ideas while collaborating with teammates and evaluating trade-offs.
• Commitment to diversity and inclusion, welcoming ideas from different backgrounds and perspectives.
• Creative thinker who can invent new solutions rather than relying on established approaches.
• The position is located in Boulder, CO with hybrid office work attendance required.

The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment are based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs, and we do not discriminate on protected characteristics under applicable law.

In accordance with various US state laws, the base compensation range for this role is $137,600—$206,400 USD, with actual amounts determined by experience, knowledge, skills, and location. The company offers stock-based compensation, variable incentives, and a comprehensive benefits package, including healthcare, retirement plans, disability coverage, life insurance, tuition reimbursement, parental leave, paid time off, holidays, and an employee stock purchase plan. Interns are not eligible for certain incentives and benefits as described in policy.

As an equal opportunity employer, The Trade Desk is committed to an inclusive hiring experience for all candidates. If you require accommodations during the hiring process, please contact View email address on click.appcast.io. Please include your preferred contact details and the nature of your accommodation request. Any information shared will be kept confidential and will not impact hiring decisions.

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