Staff Software Engineer

The Trade Desk is a global technology company with a mission to create a better, more open internet for everyone through principled, intelligent advertising. Handling over 1 trillion queries per day, our platform operates at an unprecedented scale. We have also built something even stronger and more valuable: an award-winning culture based on trust, ownership, empathy, and collaboration. We value the unique experiences and perspectives that each person brings to The Trade Desk, and we are committed to fostering inclusive spaces where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work every day.

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? Come and see why Fortune magazine consistently ranks The Trade Desk among the best small- to medium-sized workplaces globally.

What we do  

Our Software Engineers are end-to-end owners who have the opportunity to participate in many aspects of designing, building, and delivering data-focused products for our stakeholders.  

At The Trade Desk, we believe in building the back-end infrastructure of our platform with a focus on quality at scale. This means whether we are building parts of our client-facing applications, internal custom solutions for our own team members, or model pipelines for bidding optimizations, we are making sure that we have infrastructure, development, and tools to do it right and efficiently.  

Our system performs all day, every day serving global traffic. We build a distributed system in a highly collaborative environment, utilizing a broad range of technologies. Our back-end developers work on finding solutions to algorithmic, optimization and scale challenges in everything we do.  

What you’ll do:

Some of the work that you will be doing to help us deliver on our mission is:

• Design, build, deliver and own full lifecycle development software from inception to production
• Own and drive large initiatives, including planning and organizing work
• Drive complex changes involving multiple components
• Deliver quality changes, including automated tests, metrics and monitoring
• Collaborate with team members to deliver features
• Develop product roadmaps Implement and maintain product features
• Build components and processes that are regularly used by others
• Build execution plans incorporating user data, observations and market insight
• Validate changes to ensure high quality product releases
• Work in a distributed system environment
• Understand the business objectives behind the code
• Understand system architecture fundamentals through self-directed learning
• Lead projects with a high level of technical ambiguity
• Contribute to development of comprehensive success criteria
• Lead others through example, mentorship, teaching, and/or participate in hiring activities
• Use data to analyze and communicate the impact of your work on operational efficiency
• We are a global team with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. To complement this team, you will welcome ideas that are different from your own and be well-versed in building from common ground to value, seek out, and foster invisible and visible dimensions of diversity.

Who you are:

Our culture is much deeper than just having fun together (though we do that well, too). We take pride in our engineers being trust-builders, generous givers, scrappy problem solvers, and gritty pursuers of excellence. You do not have to meet all the requirements below, but we believe that people who meet most of them will have a higher likelihood of succeeding in this role:

• You are you comfortable working on an agile, distributed team spanning multiple time zones and continents.
• You are able to communicate effectively across both technical and non-technical audiences.
• You have a solid understanding of computer science and engineering fundamentals.
• You have experiences working with distributed systems.
• You are proficient in one or more of the following programming languages: C#, Java, C, C , Python, SQL, Scala, Typescript/Javascript.
• You have some knowledge of software development code editors: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Rider) and version control systems (Git, Perforce).
• You have a track record of leading and completing projects with a high level of technical ambiguity and contributing to professional growth of peers.
• You have track record of providing technical and project leadership of initiatives involving multiple teams.
• You have 7 years of software development, engineering experience
• You have a Bachelor’s/Master’s level degree in a computer-science or relevant engineering related field or equivalent experience. Not everyone has the same level of access to opportunities. What is most important to us is what and how you can contribute, which is why our consideration is not limited by the level of education you have.
• A variety of technical opportunities is one of the best things about working at The Trade Desk as a software engineer, which is why we do not expect you to know every technology we use when you start. What we care about is that you can learn quickly and find solutions to complex problems using the optimum tools for the job. What you know is less important than how well you learn and innovate. We are not seeking engineers who know all the answers; we need engineers who can invent answers

Variety of technical opportunity is one of the best things about working at The Trade Desk as a software engineer which is why we do not expect you to know every technology we use when you start. What we care about is that you can learn quickly and find solutions to complex problems using the optimum tools for the job. What you know is less important than how well you learn and innovate. We don't need engineers who know all the answers; we need engineers who can invent the answers no one has thought of yet, to the questions yet to be asked.  

The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk. The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.