Principal Ads Platform Engineer - Lead Scale & AI

Snap Inc.

Santa Monica (CA)

On-site

USD 235,000 - 414,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Snap Inc. is seeking a Principal Software Engineer for the Ads Platform to drive next‑gen ads formats, backend infrastructure, and scalable services. You will work end‑to‑end with product, data science, and platform teams, pushing for high availability, performance, and cost‑effective solutions.

You will mentor engineers, shape technical direction, and apply evolving AI tools to build robust systems that deliver value to advertisers and Snap’s ecosystem.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field, or equivalent experience.
10+ years of post‑Bachelor’s software development experience (or Master’s +9+ years; PhD +6+ years).
2+ years in technical leadership or domain expert role.
Experience setting technical direction for engineering projects.
Experience architecting, designing, and developing distributed systems.

Responsibilities

Build the next generation ads formats and backend infrastructure.
Work end‑to‑end across ads product ideas, experiments, and optimization.
Collaborate across teams to understand requirements and trade‑offs.
Advocate for availability, scalability, and cost management.
Provide technical direction influencing the company.
Design scalable services and production‑ready code with AI tools.

Skills

Programming & design

Distributed systems

Learning agility

Problem solving

Mentorship

Ads domain knowledge

AI/ML awareness

Education

Bachelor’s in technical field

Master’s +9+ years

PhD +6+ years

Job description

You will mentor engineers, shape technical direction, and apply evolving AI tools to build robust systems that deliver value to advertisers and Snap’s ecosystem.

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