Staff Software Engineer - Custom Solutions

Thetradedesk; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Inclusive hiring experience

Remote work flexibility

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

The Trade Desk is seeking an experienced Software Engineer in Bellevue, WA to drive architecture and design for end-to-end systems. You will develop custom APIs and optimize data performance in a data-intensive environment.

The ideal candidate has over 11 years of experience building large-scale distributed systems and expertise in programming languages like Python, Java, or C#. Join us in pushing the boundaries of programmatic advertising technology.

Qualifications

• 11+ years of software development experience, with significant experience building and scaling production systems.
• Strong knowledge of data processing frameworks and workflows, with experience scaling systems for data-intensive workloads.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Python, Java, C#, or Scala.

Responsibilities

• Drive architecture and design for end-to-end systems within Custom Solutions.
• Develop custom APIs and backend services that integrate seamlessly with the core platform.
• Optimize data storage, retrieval, and API performance for global-scale programmatic workloads.
• Create and maintain data processing workflows and automation solutions to support large-scale advertiser operations.

Skills

Large-scale distributed systems

Data processing frameworks

Python

Java

C#

Scala

Apache Spark

Kafka

Full stack development

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent experience

Tools

Snowflake

Vertica

Job description

The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with nearly 4,000 employees across more than 30 offices. Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet — from streaming TV and podcasts to mobile apps, news, and more.

Advertising powers the content people love. By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. The world’s brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly.

The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges — from processing massive datasets in real time to building systems that operate reliably on a global scale. When you work here, your impact is worldwide. We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another. If you’re driven to solve meaningful challenges, we’d love to meet you.

What we do

At The Trade Desk, we design and build custom solutions that extend our platform’s capabilities, with a focus on quality, reusability, and customer success. From client facing applications and backend services to data science models, workflow automation, reports, and large‑scale data workflows, we deliver end‑to‑end systems that drive advanced campaign optimization, actionable analytics, and robust data operations at global scale.

We are a small, high impact team that strategically enables advertisers to unlock advanced capabilities. We solve unique partner needs, shape technical patterns that benefit the wider platform. Whether it’s enabling advanced bidding strategies, streamlining data pipelines, or creating bespoke reporting experiences, we build with quality and scale in mind.

We value a culture of collaboration, innovation, and learning. Here, engineers invent and simplify as they extend platform capabilities, striking the right balance between reusability and customization while partnering closely with clients and cross‑functional teams.

What you’ll do:

This role is ideal for someone passionate about building innovative, data‑driven solutions in the programmatic advertising space. You thrive in a high‑scale, data‑intensive environment where client needs are diverse, and you will play a key role in designing reusable patterns and standardized components that accelerate future solution delivery. If you’re excited about enabling advertisers through tailored innovation and scalable platform extensions, we’d love to hear from you.

In addition to the core responsibilities as Software Engineer, you will specifically:

• Drive architecture and design for end‑to‑end systems within Custom Solutions, influencing platform patterns and best practices across teams.
• Develop custom APIs and backend services that integrate seamlessly with the core platform.
• Optimize data storage, retrieval, and API performance for global‑scale programmatic workloads.
• Apply best practices in software engineering across the stack for scalability, maintainability, and resilience.
• Create and maintain data processing workflows and automation solutions to support large‑scale advertiser operations.
• Collaborate with data scientists to integrate productionized models and algorithms into full‑stack systems for advanced bidding and analytics.
• Implement monitoring, logging, and observability across frontend and backend systems to maintain reliability and performance.
• Design and build client‑facing applications with responsive, intuitive UIs using frontend frameworks.
• Identify opportunities to standardize patterns to accelerate future solution delivery.

Who you are:

Our culture is much deeper than just having fun together (though we do that well, too). We take pride in our engineers being trust‑builders, generous givers, scrappy problem solvers, and gritty pursuers of excellence. You do not have to meet all the requirements below, but we believe that people who meet most of them will have a higher likelihood of succeeding in this role.

• Deep experience designing and building large‑scale, distributed systems across client‑facing applications, backend services, and data workflows.
• Proven ability to own architecture and technical direction for complex, end‑to‑end systems.
• Strong knowledge of data processing frameworks and workflows, with experience scaling systems for data‑intensive workloads.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Python, Java, C#, or Scala.
• Solid understanding of data modeling concepts and experience with relational and cloud data warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, Vertica).
• Familiarity with big data technologies (e.g., Apache Spark, Kafka) and best practices for building resilient, high‑performance systems.
• Track record of leading and completing projects with high levels of technical ambiguity while mentoring and growing peers.
• Strong communication skills for aligning technical decisions with business priorities across technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• A background with big data technologies.
• Familiarity with full stack development is a plus technical skill set.
• 11+ years of software development experience, with significant experience building and scaling production systems.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Please reach out to us at [e-mail] to request an accommodation or discuss any accessibility needs you may require to access our company website or navigate any part of the hiring process.

When you contact us, please include your preferred contact details and specify the nature of your accommodation request or questions. Any information you share will be handled confidentially and will not impact our hiring decisions.