Lead Software Engineer – Real-Time Events

Zeta-Global; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Health Insurance

Dental & Vision

Employee Equity

Pet Insurance

Wellness Classes

Employee Discounts

Job summary

Zeta Global is seeking a Lead Software Engineer for Real-Time Events to design, build, and operate a high-volume event pipeline powering the ZMP platform. You will lead architecture decisions, mentor engineers, and ensure reliable throughput and latency targets in production.

You will work closely with Product, Data, and consumer teams to translate SLAs into robust, scalable systems. A strong background in streaming, Python services, and AWS is essential for success.

Qualifications

• Extensive engineering experience; 8–10 years in software engineering, with lead/staff work on event/streaming systems.
• Production experience with event streaming (Kafka or equivalent) and Python services/APIs (e.g. FastAPI).
• Cloud proficiency: designing and operating systems on AWS (S3, SQS/SNS, Lambda, RDS).
• Full lifecycle exposure from design to production, monitoring and on-call.
• Fluent in Python, or strong background in Scala/Java.
• Experience with data stores in event pipelines (Postgres/MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB).
• Experience with orchestrators such as Apache Airflow.
• Operational mindset: high-throughput pipelines, incidents, observability, and SLOs.
• Strong communication; can explain designs and trade-offs to partners.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and launch event-pipeline features in production.
• Own architecture for the parts of the pipeline you lead.
• Evaluate technologies for cost, latency, or operational advantage.
• Mentor through design and code reviews; promote production-ready patterns.
• Collaborate with Product/Data/ZMP teams to meet SLAs (latency, throughput).
• Instrument services, improve alerting, and own on-call duties.

Skills

Event leadership

Python

Scala

Java

Communication

On-call

Observability

Tools

Kafka

FastAPI

Spark/EMR

Airflow

AWS

Job description

Lead Software Engineer – Real-Time Events

WHO WE ARE

Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA) is the AI-Powered Marketing Cloud that leverages advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and trillions of consumer signals to make it easier for marketers to acquire, grow, and retain customers more efficiently. Through the Zeta Marketing Platform (ZMP), our vision is to make sophisticated marketing simple by unifying identity, intelligence, and omnichannel activation into a single platform – powered by one of the industry’s largest proprietary databases and AI. Our enterprise customers across multiple verticals are empowered to personalize experiences with consumers at an individual level across every channel, delivering better results for marketing programs. Zeta was founded in 2007 by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley and is headquartered in New York City with offices around the world. To learn more, go to www.zetaglobal.com .

Role Overview

Zeta Global is looking for a Lead Software Engineer to join Real-Time Events (RTE). This is a highly hands‑on IC role. You will design, build, and operate the ZMP real‑time events pipeline: ingesting, processing, and delivering high‑volume event data that powers Zeta Marketing Platform products.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Design, implement, and launch event‑pipeline features in production. Own architecture for the parts of the pipeline you lead.
• Thought Leadership & Innovation: Evaluate existing or emerging technologies where they offer a clear cost, latency, or operational advantage, and land those choices in production.
• Engineering Collaboration: Engage in architectural discussions, take ownership of key pipeline projects, and define stable contracts with downstream consumers.
• Team Mentorship: Mentor through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing. Help teammates ship via clear interfaces, solid tests, and production‑ready patterns.
• Product Collaboration: Partner with Product, Data, and ZMP consumer teams to turn SLAs (latency, throughput, correctness) into working systems.
• Infrastructure & Reliability: Instrument services, improve alerting, and own on‑call gaps yourself. Drive post‑incident fixes (root cause, code, runbooks, dashboards) and keep the pipeline predictable under load.

Desired Qualifications and Expertise

• Extensive Experience: Minimum of 8–10 years in software engineering, including Lead/Staff‑level work on event, streaming, or data‑infrastructure systems.
• Technical Proficiency: Production experience with event streaming (Kafka or equivalent), Python services and APIs (e.g. FastAPI), and pipeline processing (Spark/EMR or equivalent) where needed.
• Cloud Expertise: Proficient in designing, deploying, and operating systems on AWS (S3, SQS/SNS, Lambda, RDS, and similar).
• Full Lifecycle Exposure: Experience with the complete software development lifecycle, from design through production, monitoring, and on‑call.
• Programming Skills: Fluency in Python or substantial experience in Scala and Java.
• Database Proficiency: Skilled with data stores used around event pipelines (e.g. Postgres/MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB or similar).
• Scheduler Experience: Experience with orchestrators such as Apache Airflow.
• Operational Mindset: Track record owning high‑throughput pipelines in production: incidents, performance and cost, observability, data quality, and SLOs.
• Communication Skills: Excellent interpersonal and communication abilities; can explain pipeline design and trade‑offs to partners who consume ZMP event data.

BENEFITS & PERKS

• Unlimited PTO
• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Employee Equity
• Employee Discounts, Virtual Wellness Classes, and Pet Insurance and more!!

SALARY RANGE

The salary range for this role is $200,000 – $210,000, depending on location and experience.

PEOPLE & CULTURE AT ZETA

Zeta considers applicants for employment without regard to, and does not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status as a veteran, or national or ethnic origin; nor does Zeta discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

We’re committed to building a workplace culture of trust and belonging, so everyone feels invited to bring their whole selves to work. We provide a forum for employees to celebrate, support and advocate for one another. Learn more about our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion here: https://zetaglobal.com/blog/a-look-into-zetas-ergs/

We are committed to building diverse teams with different identities, backgrounds and perspectives. We believe in providing a forum to connect at Zeta, to learn and celebrate differences. Our mission is to ensure we have an environment that enables a deep level of trust and belonging, so everyone feels invited to bring their whole selves to work, and to increase both diversity at Zeta as well as in the technology industry.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Zeta Global’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.