Principal Software Engineer

Insight Global; Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Insight Global is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead design and development of ultra-low-latency buy-side ad tech systems. You will own critical components from bidding to optimization, mentor engineers, and collaborate with ML and data teams on performance improvements.

You will architect high-throughput real-time bidding platforms, drive system scalability, and ensure data quality and compliance across the stack.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience in ad tech / performance advertising.
• Strong hands-on experience with Golang in building low-latency backend systems.
• Proven experience designing and operating real-time bidding platforms or ad serving systems.
• Deep understanding of campaign pacing, budget allocation, and performance optimization algorithms.
• Experience with streaming and distributed systems (Kafka, Flink, Spark).
• Familiarity with OpenRTB, VAST, and programmatic advertising workflows.
• Solid knowledge of SQL and PostgreSQL; experience with analytics platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and containers (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Strong data structures, algorithms, and distributed system design.
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with product, data science, analytics, and ML teams.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, and build high-throughput, ultra-low-latency RTB systems for buy-side platforms.
• Lead bidder services handling millions of QPS with latency SLAs using Golang/C/C++.
• Design and implement campaign pacing, budget management, and delivery optimization across multiple objectives.
• Own systems for deal execution, auction participation, bid shading, and supply path optimization.
• Build and evolve real-time data pipelines for impressions, clicks, conversions, and attribution with Kafka, Flink, or Spark.
• Collaborate with ML engineers to productionize bid optimization and forecasting models.
• Integrate support for programmatic advertising protocols (OpenRTB, VAST).
• Drive scalability, fault tolerance, data governance, privacy, and latency improvements.
• Mentor engineers and lead technical reviews; establish coding standards.

Skills

Golang

RTB systems

Campaign pacing

Distributed systems

Data pipelines

Kafka

Flink

Spark

OpenRTB

SQL/PostgreSQL

Cloud platforms

Docker

Kubernetes

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and development of highly scalable, low-latency buy-side ad tech systems. This role is ideal for someone with deep expertise in Golang, real-time bidding systems, and campaign pacing and optimization algorithms, with strong exposure to DSP / performance advertising domains.

As a technical leader, you will own critical components of the bidding and optimization stack, influence system architecture, mentor senior and junior engineers, and work closely with product, ML, and data teams to drive measurable performance outcomes across large-scale advertising campaigns.

What You'll Do

• Architect, design, and build high-throughput, ultra-low-latency real-time bidding systems for buy-side advertising platforms.
• Lead development of bidder services handling millions of QPS with strict latency and reliability SLAs using Golang/C/C++.
• Design and implement campaign pacing, budget management, and delivery optimization algorithms across multiple objectives (CPA, ROAS, CTR, CVR).
• Own core systems for deal execution, auction participation, bid shading, and supply path optimization.
• Build and evolve real-time and near-real-time data pipelines for impressions, clicks, conversions, and attribution using Kafka, Flink, or Spark.
• Collaborate closely with ML engineers to productionize models such as bid optimization, contextual bandits, reach forecasting, and incrementality models.
• Integrate and maintain support for programmatic advertising protocols (OpenRTB, VAST, CTV-specific standards).
• Drive architectural decisions around scalability, fault tolerance, data consistency, and latency optimization.
• Ensure data quality, governance, privacy, and compliance across the performance advertising stack.
• Conduct deep performance profiling, latency tuning, and debugging of distributed systems in production.
• Mentor engineers, set coding and design standards, and lead technical reviews across teams.
• Evaluate and introduce new technologies, auction strategies, and optimization frameworks to keep the platform competitive.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with significant depth in ad tech / performance advertising/Building DSP bidder (Buy side).
• Strong hands-on experience with Golang in building low-latency, high-scale backend systems.
• Proven experience designing and operating real-time bidding platforms, bidders, or ad serving systems.
• Deep understanding of campaign pacing, budget allocation, and performance optimization algorithms.
• Experience with streaming and distributed systems (Kafka, Flink, Spark Streaming).
• Strong familiarity with OpenRTB, VAST, and programmatic advertising workflows.
• Solid knowledge of SQL,PostgreSQL and large-scale analytics platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery, or similar).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and distributed system design.
• Experience working cross-functionally with product, data science, analytics, and ML teams.
• Demonstrated ability to own systems end-to-end, influence architecture, and deliver at scale.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to drive technical direction