Staff Software Engineer, Demand Bidder, Ad Serving Platform

Roku; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Retirement plan

Commuter benefits

Job summary

Roku is seeking a Senior Software Engineer (Staff scope) to design, build, and operate core components of a high-throughput, low-latency demand-bidder platform. You will own subsystems from architecture to operation, collaborating with engineers and applied scientists to merge distributed systems with ML decision-making.

Join a team delivering real-time decisioning with strict latency requirements, mentoring peers, and driving architectural evolution across multi-region deployments.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale, low-latency distributed systems.
• Strong ownership of complex systems end-to-end: design, build, operate, on-call, iterate.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate core components of a large-scale, real-time distributed decisioning system.
• Take end-to-end ownership of subsystems: architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, on-call, and evolution.
• Build mental model of a highly distributed production system and drive improvements.
• Identify opportunities to evolve system architecture and tooling.
• Partner with engineers and applied scientists to merge distributed systems with ML decision-making.
• Diagnose and resolve timing-dependent or statistical issues in multi-region environments.
• Mentor teammates and raise engineering rigor, testing discipline, and ops excellence.
• Communicate objectives and status to stakeholders across engineering, product, and business.

Skills

Distributed systems

Java

Concurrency

Performance optimization

Cloud infrastructure

SQL/NoSQL

ML techniques in prod

Real-time decisioning

Leadership

Education

B.S./M.S. in CS/Engineering

Tools

Redis

Kafka

Job description

About the Team

Roku's Ad Serving Team builds and operates the real‑time advertising platform that powers ad monetization across video, display, and native ad formats. The Demand Bidder team owns high‑throughput, low‑latency systems that serve ads for tens of thousands of campaigns.

About the Role

Senior Software Engineer (Staff scope) – help scale and evolve the demand‑bidder platform. Join a team delivering real‑time decisioning with strict latency requirements and own key subsystems from architecture to operation.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate core components of a large‑scale, real‑time distributed decisioning system.
• Take end‑to‑end ownership of subsystems: architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, on‑call, and long‑term evolution.
• Build a mental model of a highly distributed production system and drive high‑leverage improvements.
• Identify opportunities to continuously evolve system architecture and tooling.
• Partner with engineers and applied scientists to merge distributed systems with statistical/ML decision‑making.
• Diagnose and resolve subtle, timing‑dependent or statistical issues in a highly concurrent, multi‑region environment.
• Mentor teammates and raise engineering rigor, testing discipline, and operational excellence across the team.
• Communicate objectives and status to technical and non‑technical stakeholders to align engineering, product, and business partners.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing, building, and operating large‑scale, low‑latency distributed systems – preferably you’ve built at least one system from ground up.
• Strong track record of owning complex systems end‑to‑end: design, build, operate, on‑call, and iterate based on production feedback.
• Rapid ramp‑up into unfamiliar, complex codebases with a focus on learning and contributing quickly.
• Experience evolving and refactoring live, business‑critical systems without compromising uptime or correctness.
• Strong command of Java; solid foundation in algorithms, data structures, concurrency, and performance optimization.
• Practical knowledge of distributed caching, high‑throughput messaging/streaming, and SQL/NoSQL datastores.
• Proficient with cloud infrastructure at scale (GCP or AWS).
• Experience applying statistical, control‑theory, or ML techniques to production decision‑making is a plus.
• Real‑time bidding / ad‑tech experience is a big plus; other high‑stakes, low‑latency domains (trading, ranking, matchmaking, fraud) also valued.
• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• High ownership, self‑motivation, critical thinking, and comfort with ambiguity.
• Authentic collaboration, low egocentric attitude, and openness to feedback.

AI Usage

We value AI fluency. Ideal candidates have used AI coding assistants (e.g., ClaudeCode, Cursor) in production to accelerate design, implementation, debugging, and understanding of unfamiliar codebases. Experience leveraging AI for system monitoring, issue triage, or agentic workflows is also welcome.

Benefits and Equal Opportunity

Roku offers a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, vision, life insurance, disability, commuter and retirement options. We provide statutory and voluntary benefits, mental health and financial wellness support, and local leave policies. All qualified applicants are considered on a non‑discriminatory basis. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and provide reasonable accommodations during the hiring process.