Staff Software Engineer

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.

WHO WE ARE:

We're a small, high-impact team building the next-generation TV operating system. Our flexible structure gives engineers direct influence over product direction—an opportunity rarely found in larger companies.

Our innovative approach to the CTV industry optimizes the advertising supply chain, creating better outcomes for advertisers, publishers, and TV viewers alike. As part of our Ventura OS project, we're developing sophisticated backend infrastructure to power our platform, with a strong emphasis on quality at scale.

We believe culture matters. We foster an environment where engineers thrive through collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning. Our teams build cutting-edge streaming technology that enables advertisers to leverage data for more relevant and effective ad experiences—while improving efficiency across the entire supply chain ecosystem.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

This role is ideal for someone passionate about streaming, TVOS, or e-commerce data ecosystems , who thrives in high-scale, data-intensive environments and enjoys solving complex technical challenges. If you’re looking to shape the future of personalized content delivery and consumer experiences , please read on - we’d love to hear from you!

In addition to the core responsibilities of our backend engineers, you will specifically:

• Be part of a nimble, innovative team where engineering drives the vision. If you're excited about building the future of CTV, we'd love to hear from you.
• Design, build, and maintain data pipelines for processing content catalog data using technologies like Apache Spark for the Ventura OS project
• Develop efficient data processing workflows that can handle large-scale data with optimal performance
• Create robust APIs that securely expose data services to other parts of our platform
• Collaborate with data scientists to integrate with their models and algorithms in production environments
• Build scalable data integration solutions that connect various data sources and destinations
• Implement monitoring and observability for data pipelines to ensure reliability and performance
• Optimize data storage and retrieval mechanisms for our specific use cases
• Contribute to architectural decisions around data infrastructure
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to understand business requirements and translate them into technical solutions
• Apply best practices for data engineering, including data quality checks, error handling, and recovery mechanisms

WHO YOU ARE:

One of the best things about being a software engineer at The Trade Desk is the variety of technical opportunities available. We don’t expect you to know every technology we use from day one—what matters most is your ability to learn quickly and solve complex problems using the best tools for the job. What you know is less important than how well you adapt, innovate, and think critically.

We’re not looking for engineers who have all the answers—we need engineers who can invent answers no one has thought of yet and solve problems that haven’t even been defined.

Our culture goes beyond just having fun together (though we do that well, too). We take pride in being trust-builders, generous givers, scrappy problem solvers, and relentless pursuers of excellence.

You don’t have to meet every requirement below, but if you check most of these boxes, you’re likely to thrive in this role.

WHAT YOU BRING:

• Extensive experience with data warehousing solutions like Vertica, Snowflake, or Databricks to support large-scale data operations.
• Strong knowledge of data governance and data quality frameworks to ensure accuracy, consistency, and compliance in data pipelines.
• Hands‑on experience with machine learning pipelines and MLOps, particularly in personalization, content recommendations, ad‑tech solutions, or e‑commerce optimization within streaming or TVOS platforms .
• Expertise in content metadata processing and management , ideally within a streaming, TVOS, or e‑commerce environment .
• Familiarity with entertainment catalog systems, taxonomy structures, and content discovery workflows .
• Prior work on recommendation systems or search technologies , enhancing user experiences through AI‑driven content surfacing.
• Strong ability to communicate effectively across technical and non‑technical stakeholders , ensuring alignment on data strategies and priorities.
• A solid foundation in computer science and engineering fundamentals , enabling you to design scalable, high‑performance systems.
• Deep experience with distributed systems and data processing frameworks , working with large‑scale datasets in a high‑traffic environment.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Java, Scala, or Python for building and maintaining robust data pipelines.
• Strong expertise in big data technologies such as Apache Spark, Kafka , and other scalable data processing tools.
• Solid understanding of data modeling concepts and experience with both relational and NoSQL database systems .
• Hands‑on experience with cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, or Azure , and containerization technologies such as Kubernetes .
• Proven ability to lead and complete projects with high levels of technical ambiguity while mentoring and contributing to the growth of peers.
• 7+ years of software development experience , with at least 5 years specializing in data engineering or pipeline development .
• A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field , or equivalent industry experience.

In accordance with various US state laws, the range provided is the Trade Desk's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount may differ based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, and location. All employees may be eligible to become The Trade Desk shareholders through eligibility for stock-based compensation grants, which are awarded to employees based on company and individual performance. The Trade Desk also offers other compensation depending on the role such as variable compensation-based incentives and commissions. Plus, expected benefits for this role include comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) with premiums paid in full for employees and dependents, retirement benefits such as a 401k plan and company match, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, well‑being benefits, reimbursement for certain tuition expenses, parental leave, sick time of 1 hour per 30 hours worked, vacation time for full‑time employees up to 120 hours thru the first year and 160 hours thereafter, and around 13 paid holidays per year. Employees can also purchase The Trade Desk stock at a discount through The Trade Desk’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

The Trade Desk also offers a competitive benefits package. Click here to learn more.

Note: Interns are not eligible for variable incentive awards such as stock-based compensation, retirement plan, vacation, tuition reimbursement or parental leave

At the Trade Desk, Base Salary is one part of our competitive total compensation and benefits package and is determined using a salary range. The base salary range for this role is $137,300—$251,800 USD

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

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