Senior Backend Engineer, Advertising Tech (Real-Time)

Socket.dev; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 136,000 - 191,000; Full time

Job summary

Expedia Group is seeking a Software Development Engineer III for its Advertising Technology team to build real-time ad delivery systems that power ranking, auctions, and budget enforcement at scale. The role collaborates with Product, ML data science, and data teams to integrate APIs and ML-driven signals into high-throughput backend services.

The position emphasizes low latency, correctness, and reliability, with opportunities to mentor engineers, influence design, and continuously improve the

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of experience in backend software development.
• Experience with data-driven systems, ML-powered features, or A/B experimentation platforms.
• Strong proficiency in at least one modern programming language (e.g., Java, Kotlin).
• Experience building and deploying backend APIs (e.g., gRPC) and streaming or batch data processing services (e.g., Flink, Spark) in cloud environments.
• Solid understanding of distributed systems, data flows, and operational best practices.

Responsibilities

• Optimize bidding, ranking and pacing for ad delivery to surface relevant ads for travelers.
• Build and scale systems that support ad serving and ad selection across the Expedia Group advertising network.
• Apply strong software design principles, algorithms, and data structures to build scalable, low-latency services.
• Collaborate with Product, ML data scientists and data teams on features like relevance optimization, targeting, and performance modeling.
• Promote high-quality code, automated testing, and strong observability practices.
• Participate in operational reviews and drive continuous improvement.
• Mentor junior engineers and lead design discussions to raise the team's technical bar.

Skills

Backend development

Java

Kotlin

APIs (gRPC)

Streaming data processing

Distributed systems

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science or related field

Tools

gRPC

Flink

Spark

Job description

Expedia Group is seeking a Software Development Engineer III for its Advertising Technology team to build real-time ad delivery systems that power ranking, auctions, and budget enforcement at scale. The role collaborates with Product, ML data science, and data teams to integrate APIs and ML-driven signals into high-throughput backend services.

The position emphasizes low latency, correctness, and reliability, with opportunities to mentor engineers, influence design, and continuously improve the