Software Engineer 5 - Ads Forecasting and Simulation

Netflix, Inc.; New York (NY); On-site; USD 388,000 - 558,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plans

Mental health support

401(k) employer match

Stock option program

Disability programs

HSA/FSA

Job summary

Netflix, Inc. is seeking a role within the Ads Platform Engineering teams to build and optimize high-performance advertising systems. You will work on forecasting, simulations, and ML-driven optimizations that scale with growing data volumes and complex constraints.

The position requires collaboration with cross-functional teams and a strong background in distributed systems and big data processing. This is a full-time role based in New York, with a focus on delivering value to advertisers and

Qualifications

• Experience building ads forecasting systems with ML.
• Large-volume data processing with Spark and related tools.
• Understanding of ad marketplace and ad serving flow.

Responsibilities

• Build forecasting and simulation systems for ads.
• Productionize ML models and optimize algorithms.
• Collaborate with Sales, Pricing and Science teams.
• Handle large-scale data with Spark and distributed systems.

Skills

Ads forecasting

ML models

Big data

Distributed systems

Cross-functional teams

Tools

Spark

Lucene

Job description

At Netflix, our mission is to entertain the world. Together, we are writing the next episode - pushing the boundaries of storytelling, global fandom and making the unimaginable a reality. We are a dream team obsessed with the uncomfortable excitement of discovering what happens when you merge creativity, intuition and cutting-edge technology. Come be a part of what’s next. We launched a new ad-supported tier in November 2022 to offer our members more choice in how they consume their content. Our new tier allows us to attract new members at a lower price point, while also creating a compelling path for advertisers to reach audiences that are deeply engaged.

The Ads Platform Engineering teams build advertising systems and integrations that powers the delivery of ads using our world class content delivery ecosystem.

We use a number of Netflix investments and innovations to power our ads - unique mix of client and server side ad insertions, state of the art content delivery system, ad encoding recipes, content understanding and metadata etc. We deliver ads in a manner that’s thoughtful of our member’s viewing experience and drive great outcomes for advertisers. We also ensure that advertiser brand safety is ensured during serving, members only see the most appropriate ads for them.

Ads Inventory Management & Forecasting team

Dedicated to developing and maintaining E2E inventory forecasting, underwriting and simulation systems. Forecasting enables near-realtime data-driven decisioning for advertisers, agencies, DSPs and Netflix stakeholders who utilize forecasting to plan, optimize and traffic campaigns. Simulation supports experimentation, analytics, scenario planning, pricing and packaging use cases from Sales, Account, Pricing and Science teams.

The forecasting and simulation team needs to build distributed systems that are highly efficient and scalable to handle large and growing ads data and intense computation, while still remaining easy to add, reuse and enhance. The team also needs to work closely with science team to productionize ML models and optimization algorithms. Our team is new and yet faced with the enormous ambitions of building highly performant advertising systems and delivering high impact to our business by monetizing our incredible slate of content.

Skills & experience we’re seeking

• Professional experience in building sophisticated ads forecasting systems which involves ML models and high performance ad server simulation that accounts for constraints like frequency capping, targeting, publisher policy, and other business parameters.
• Proven experience in handling data at extremely large volumes with big data tools like Spark, and building high throughput low latency distributed systems that utilized the big data.
• General understanding of the advertising marketplace and landscape, with a focus on ad serving flow.
• Developed many cloud based applications and comfortable with modern programming languages (preferably object oriented).
• Experience in working with cross‑functional teams to drive large and complex projects.

Nice to haves

• Good understanding of Lucene index and had experience building and querying Lucene index with large volume of data.
• Experience in productionizing ML models and deploying models at scale.
• Contributed to an ads industry technology standard (e.g VAST, OpenRTB) or worked on an industry consortium effort, working group etc.
• Familiarity with legal compliance and changing landscape of ads regulations around the world.
• Experience working in the CTV space and knowledge of its unique constraints

Compensation

The range for this role is $388,000.00 - $558,000.00.

Benefits

• Health Plans
• Mental Health support
• 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match
• Stock Option Program
• Disability Programs
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts
• Family-forming benefits
• Life and Serious Injury Benefits

We also offer paid leave of absence programs.

• Full‑time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off.
• Full‑time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off.

Equal‑opportunity employment

We are an equal‑opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Inclusion

Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates.

About Netflix

At Netflix, we want to entertain the world. Whatever your taste, and no matter where you live, we give you access to best-in-class TV series, documentaries, feature films and games. Our members control what they want to watch, when they want it, in one simple subscription. We’re streaming in more than 30 languages and 190 countries, because great stories can come from anywhere and be loved everywhere. We are the world’s biggest fans of entertainment, and we’re always looking to help you find your next favorite story.