Senior Software Engineer, AD Serving Roku, Inc.

Coding Black Females Ltd; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Roku is hiring a Senior Software Engineer for the Advertising Platform to build a real-time, scalable ad platform supporting and growing Roku's advertising business.

The role demands extensive experience with large-scale distributed systems, proficiency in Java or C++, and a strong grasp of algorithms, data structures, and performance optimization. Collaboration across teams and a focus on delivering high-quality software is essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience building large-scale, low-latency distributed systems.
• Proficiency in Java or C++.
• Strong understanding of algorithms, data structures, and performance optimization.
• Experience with distributed caching, SQL/NoSQL databases.
• Familiarity with Big Data and cloud services (AWS/GCP).
• Experience in the advertising domain is a plus.
• B.S./M.S. in CS, Eng, or equivalent.
• Self-motivated with ownership and accountability.
• Strong communication and collaboration across teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain large-scale, real-time applications.
• Own features and collaborate with product and other engineering teams.
• Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences.
• Advocate best practices across developers, QA, and operations.
• Drive platform innovation and reuse.
• Deliver high-quality software on time.

Skills

Distributed systems

Java

C++

Algorithms

Multi-threading

Real-time programming

SQL/NoSQL

Big Data & Cloud (AWS/GCP)

Advertising domain

Self-motivation & ownership

Creative problem solving

Education

B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

What does the team work on?

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!

What is 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.

How will I use AI at Roku?

At Roku, we don’t just use AI, we work with it. AI agents and smart tools help power drafts, analysis, and repetitive workflows, while our people bring direction, judgment, and accountability. We’re looking for curious, adaptable builders who can show how they’ve used AI or automation to move faster, raise the bar, and scale their impact. We value your AI skills if have built fluency across the agentic engineering toolchain — coding harnesses like Claude Code or Cursor, MCP servers, custom skills, or agent frameworks. And you can describe projects where you shipped real work with these tools. You know how to drive an agent, verify its output, and ramp on an unfamiliar codebase with an agent helping you.

What are the responsibilities of the role?

• 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

What experience would help someone be successful in this role at Roku?

• 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