Real-Time Ad Decisioning & Optimization Architect

Netflix; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Netflix is seeking a senior technical leader to own the technical direction of the Decisioning & Optimization pod within Netflix Ads. You will write code, ship proofs-of-concept, and set architectural standards while guiding a senior team.

The role combines 60% hands-on building with 40% influencer work, focusing on real-time ad decisioning, architecture reviews, and scalable ML model serving across the ad stack.

Qualifications

• 10+ years building distributed systems and backend services at large scale.
• 3+ years in the ads domain.
• Deep experience with ML model serving infrastructure and real-time inference.
• Built and operated core ad tech systems like ad servers, bidders, pacers, or ranking components.
• Designed APIs and data models enabling interoperability across a multi-team ads platform.
• Strong understanding of ad serving concepts including inventory management and frequency capping.
• Track record of technical leadership and cross-functional influence.
• Comfortable translating ML research into production systems.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction of the Decisioning & Optimization team: architecture reviews, incident leadership, capacity planning, and scaling.
• Architect and evolve real-time ad decisioning optimization path: multi-stage auction, ranking, scoring, bidding, and pacing with latency constraints.
• Scale model serving infra for dozens of concurrent hot-path ML models with sub-20ms P99 latency, including routing and lifecycle management.
• Collaborate with Science and Platform teams to productionize models and deployment.
• Develop simulation and testing frameworks for offline validation before live rollout.
• Design and implement real-time pacing to drive budget delivery accuracy across campaigns.
• Drive modularization and platform thinking with reusable components and clean Interfaces.

Skills

Distributed systems

Backend services

Ads domain

ML model serving

Ad tech systems

APIs & data models

Latency & throughput

Technical leadership

Job description

Netflix is seeking a senior technical leader to own the technical direction of the Decisioning & Optimization pod within Netflix Ads. You will write code, ship proofs-of-concept, and set architectural standards while guiding a senior team.

The role combines 60% hands-on building with 40% influencer work, focusing on real-time ad decisioning, architecture reviews, and scalable ML model serving across the ad stack.