Principal Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer

Boulder, Colorado or New York City, New York or Remote

About Sovrn

Every interesting company solves important problems for other people. Sovrn is a Software and Data business that helps Open Web businesses be and remain independent. We help them understand their business better, operate more efficiently, and make and keep more money.

• We believe in the freedom and free-flow of information.
• We believe the Open Web is the largest source of this information.
• We believe in helping Open Web businesses be and remain Independent.

Through Software products and Data solutions we help our customers:

• Understand their business better, so they can make better decisions
• Operate their business more efficiently, so they can invest in what matters most
• Make (and Keep) more money, so they control their own destiny

About the Role

We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer with deep roots in adtech infrastructure and a genuine conviction about what AI-native engineering looks like in practice. This role is backend-focused at its core — you'll work on the systems that power our exchange, from bid request processing and traffic shaping to data pipelines and auction logic. But we're also at an inflection point in how we build software, and we want this person to help lead us through it.

From a generative/agentic AI capabilities standpoint, we already use LLMs and agentic tooling across our data stack and, we're looking for is someone who can help us take that from general adoption to intentional practice — who has strong opinions about where AI creates real leverage in a high-throughput adtech environment, and who can bring the rest of the engineering organization along with them.

Languages/components/tools in our stack: Java, Kafka (Redpanda), AWS, Databricks, Datadog, ONNX.

What you'll be doing

• Own the design and evolution of backend systems that operate at exchange scale — high throughput, low latency, always on
• Lead architectural decisions across auction infrastructure, bid processing, traffic shaping, and supply-side integrations
• Establish and champion AI engineering practices across the team — from prompt engineering and RAG patterns to agentic workflow design and LLM evaluation
• Identify high-leverage opportunities to apply AI in our adtech stack: traffic scoring and filtering, bid shading, yield optimization, anomaly detection, and automated decisioning
• Set standards for how we evaluate, trust, and operate AI-powered systems in production — including observability, fallback behavior, and model governance
• Drive technical standards, design reviews, and engineering best practices across a senior team
• Partner with product, data science, and platform teams to ship end-to-end
• Help the broader engineering team build fluency and confidence with AI tooling, not just tolerance of it
• Mentor and level up engineers through code review, design collaboration, and hands-on guidance

A successful candidate will have:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong backend track record
• 5+ years working specifically in adtech infrastructure — SSP, DSP, exchange, or ad server environments
• Deep fluency in the programmatic ecosystem: OpenRTB, bid request/response flows, auction mechanics, supply path optimization, or similar
• Experience building and operating systems at exchange scale — high QPS, strict latency budgets, fault tolerance
• Demonstrated experience leading AI or agentic engineering efforts in production environments — not just experimentation, but shipped, operated, and iterated on
• Hands-on experience with LLM integration patterns: RAG, tool use, multi-step agentic workflows, prompt engineering, and evaluation frameworks
• Strong distributed systems fundamentals: messaging, caching, service architecture, observability
• Comfort driving technical decisions in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
• A point of view on where AI is and isn't the right tool — and the credibility to make that case

Location: This position is based in our Boulder Colorado or New York City office. Applicants need to be able to commute/travel to our Boulder or New York City location. For exceptional candidates we would consider remote locations in these states: AZ, CA, CO, GA, MD, MA, MI, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OK, TX, UT, WA. #LI-Hybrid #LI-Remote

We understand that no candidate is perfectly qualified for any job. Experience comes in different forms; many skills are transferable; and passion goes a long way. Even more important than your resume is a clear demonstration of accountability and the ability to thrive in a fluid and collaborative environment. We expect you to learn new things in this role and encourage you to apply if your experience is close to what we're looking for.

Sovrn Core Values: Candid, Customer Empathy, Learning, Scrappy, Second Order Thinking

Compensation and Benefits

The base pay range for this position is $200,000 to $240,000 annually. In addition to the base salary, the total compensation package includes bonus, equity, and benefits. Actual earnings may vary depending on the candidate's direct experience, skills, industry knowledge, and location.

Sovrn offers a full slate of benefits from competitive salaries, stock options, medical, dental, and vision coverage, short and long-term disability, life insurance, 11 paid holidays, flexible vacation, commuter benefits, a 401(k) plan and match, and a paid parental leave program.

Job Posting

Applications will be accepted until July 1, 2026.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Sovrn is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, parental or pregnancy status, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Recruitment Agencies

Sovrn does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias or Sovrn employees. Sovrn is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.