Software Engineer 6 - Ad Serving Platform

Netflix; Los Gatos (CA); On-site; USD 499,000 - 900,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plans

401(k) with employer match

Stock option program

Disability programs

Life and serious injury benefits

Job summary

Netflix is seeking a senior technical leader to own the technical direction of the ad-serving platform within the Ads Serving & Decisioning org. You will drive architectural standards, optimize high-throughput, low-latency systems, and collaborate across engineering teams to meet SLAs and uptime goals.

The role focuses on modular platform design, profiling and telemetry, and supporting external components like model-serving runtimes and budget/pacing systems.

Qualifications

• 10+ years building distributed systems or high-throughput platforms.
• Expertise writing clean code in systems languages (Java/Go/C++/Rust).
• Experience with multi-threaded design and lock-free structures.
• Understanding of network protocols and I/O-bound work.
• Ability to measure performance with profiling/telemetry tools.
• Translate complex requirements into extensible platform components.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical direction of the ad-serving platform across teams.
• Architect a high-throughput, low-latency distributed platform and monitor tail latencies.
• Profile, diagnose, and mitigate latency in core execution paths.
• Build modular platform design with clear entry points for model-serving and pacing components.
• Ensure operations resiliency and graceful degradation during traffic spikes or live events.

Skills

Distributed systems

Low-latency engineering

Concurrency & multi-threading

Networking & IO optimization

Profiling & telemetry

Architectural design

LLM-assisted tooling

Tools

CI/CD tooling

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 deeply engaged audiences.

Our Team

The Ads Serving Platform engineering team sits within the Ad Serving & Decisioning org at Netflix Ads. We own the high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems that power real-time ad decisioning. Our work focuses on the core platform architectures supporting ranking and scoring, auction mechanics, budget and pacing systems, and goal-based delivery optimization. We care deeply about how systems work and building resilient systems at scale.

We are looking for a senior technical leader to own the technical direction of this platform pod, set the architectural bar, and drive execution on the hardest problems in high-throughput systems optimization at Netflix.

What You’ll Do

• Technical Direction: Help drive the overall technical direction of the ad-serving platform. Partner across engineering teams to ensure the ecosystem meets SLAs, SLOs, and uptime requirements.
• Low-Latency Distributed Platform: Architect a concurrent platform optimized for high-throughput systems while monitoring, diagnosing, and mitigating tail latencies across core execution paths.
• Networking & Performance Engineering: Work with I/O-bound and CPU-bound workloads. Profile and tune network and system layers, and build automated performance-benchmarking frameworks within the CI/CD pipeline to identify latency regressions.
• Modular Platform Design: Build a modular architecture that enables other teams to build on top of the platform. Create entry points for external components like model-serving runtimes, budget/pacing systems, and programmatic demand engines that handle outbound networking and QPS management.
• Operational Excellence & Resiliency: Architect a system that is straightforward to operate and maintain. Maintain a high standard for distributed systems design and resiliency, ensuring graceful degradation during traffic spikes or live events.

Skills & Experience We’re Seeking

• Distributed Systems Experience: 10+ years of experience building distributed systems, core backend infrastructure, or high-throughput platforms.
• Low-Latency Systems Engineering: Deep expertise writing clean, highly optimized code in systems languages (e.g., Java, Go, C++, or Rust) with a proven track record of handling high-transaction volumes.
• Concurrency & Algorithmic Design: Practical experience with multi-threaded systems design, concurrent programming, and algorithmic design for highly concurrent workloads (including lock-free data structures or lock contention mitigation).
• Networking & I/O Optimization: Understanding of distributed system fundamentals, specifically managing I/O-bound and CPU-bound workloads, network protocols, and data partitioning strategies.
• Performance Measurement & Telemetry: Experience using profiling and diagnostic tools to measure system performance, analyze tail latencies, identify execution hotspots, and build telemetry or monitoring hooks.
• Architecture & Collaboration: Ability to translate complex algorithmic requirements (such as business logic or data science models) into extensible platform components that support multiple teams.
• Modern Development Tooling: Comfort using modern development tools and LLM assistance to accelerate implementation while maintaining architectural oversight and code quality.

Generally, our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $499,000.00 - $900,000.00.

Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and 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.

Netflix is a unique culture and environment.

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

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.