Senior Software Engineer, AD Serving

Roku; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mental health resources

Financial wellness resources

Healthcare (medical, dental, vision)

Job summary

Roku is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help build a real-time, scalable advertising platform. You will design, develop, and own features end-to-end, collaborating with product teams and other engineering groups to deliver impactful ads technology.

The role emphasizes software quality, performance optimization, and strong ownership. Applicants should have deep experience in distributed systems and love solving complex problems at scale.

Qualifications

• 10+ years designing large-scale, low-latency distributed systems.
• Experience with real-time applications and high-throughput data processing.
• Strong OO design, performance optimization, and debugging skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain large-scale, real-time advertising platform components.
• Own features from concept to production, collaborating with product and other teams.
• Demonstrate strong communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Advocate for best practices across development, QA and operations.
• Promote platform reuse and innovation across services.
• Deliver high-quality software in a timely manner.

Skills

Java

C++

Distributed systems

Algorithms & data structures

Multi-threading

Cloud technologies (AWS/GCP)

SQL/NoSQL databases

Gen AI curiosity

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science or Engineering

Job description

About the Team

A highly scalable and highly available real-time advertising platform is crucial for supporting and growing Roku's advertising business. The mission of the Ad Engineering Team is to build this platform. We are hiring a Senior Software Engineer for the Advertising Platform to play a vital role in this mission. If you bring extensive experience building complex systems, love great technology at scale, enjoy mentoring, jumping in, and figuring things out in any system, this role is for you!

About the Role

Roku pioneered TV streaming and continues to innovate, leading the industry. The Roku Channel has us well-positioned to help shape the future of streaming. Continued success relies on investing in Advertising Engineering. The ideal candidate will possess endless curiosity and be able to pair a global mindset with locally relevant execution. The successful candidate will demonstrate a balance of hard and soft skills, including the ability to respond promptly to evolving business needs.

Building a real-time, highly scalable, and available advertising platform is critical for our success. Our team’s mission is to build a best-in-class advertising platform to support and grow Roku’s exploding ad business. Our platforms are highly performant, deployed at scale, and set new standards for enabling effective advertising while protecting user privacy.

What You'll Be Doing

• Work alongside a highly skilled engineering team to design, develop, and maintain large-scale, highly performing, real-time applications
• Own building features, driving directly with the product, and other engineering teams
• Demonstrate excellent communication skills in working with technical and non-technical audiences
• Be an evangelist for best practices across all functions – developers, QA, and infrastructure/ops
• Be an evangelist for platform innovation and reuse
• Deliver top-quality software in a timely fashion

We're Excited If You Have

• 10+ years of experience building large-scale and low-latency distributed systems
• Command of Java or C++
• Solid understanding of algorithms, data structures, performance optimization techniques, object-oriented programming, multi-threading, and real-time programming
• Experience with distributed caching, SQL/NoSQL, and other databases is a plus
• Experience with Big Data and cloud services such as AWS/GCP is a plus
• Experience in the advertising domain is a big plus
• B.S. or M.S. degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent
• Self-motivated individual with a high level of accountability and ownership
• Critical thinking and practical decision-making
• Can do, results-oriented mindset
• Nonpolitical, collaborative, and team-oriented
• Desire to win in a highly competitive industry
• AI literacy and curiosity. You have either 1) tried Gen AI in your previous work or outside of work or 2) are curious about Gen AI and have explored it

What's Roku's approach to hybrid working?

Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams generally work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are generally flexible for remote work, except for employees whose specific roles or assigned office location require five days' a week attendance.

What are some of the benefits?

Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension). Employees are supported in taking time off, in accordance with local leave policies and other personal needs to support their evolving work and life needs. It's important to note that not every benefit is available in all locations or for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your recruiter.

Accommodations

Roku welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments in accordance with applicable law. If you require reasonable accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please direct your inquiries to [e-mail].