Staff Software Engineer, Demand Bidder, Ad Serving Platform

Roku; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 195,500 - 352,100; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work schedule

Comprehensive benefits package

Accommodations support

Job summary

Roku is hiring a Senior Software Engineer (Staff scope) to scale and evolve a high-throughput advertising platform. You will own critical subsystems, drive architecture, testing, and deployment, and work with engineers and scientists on distributed, ML-assisted decisioning.

The role emphasizes ownership, fast onboarding, and collaboration in a hybrid Boston-area environment with strong compensation and benefits. You will mentor peers and help deliver low-latency, reliable systems at scale.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale, low-latency distributed systems.
• Ownership of complex systems end-to-end: design, build, operate, on-call, and iterate.
• Ability to ramp quickly into unfamiliar, large codebases and become productive fast.
• Experience evolving live, business-critical systems without downtime or correctness issues.
• Strong command of Java with knowledge of algorithms, data structures, concurrency, and performance optimization.
• Experience with distributed caching, high-throughput messaging/streaming systems, and SQL/NoSQL datastores.
• Comfort operating in cloud infrastructure (GCP or AWS) at scale.
• Exposure to ML-driven techniques in production decision-making is a plus.
• Real-time bidding/ad-tech domain experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate core components of a large-scale, real-time system with strict latency requirements.
• Take end-to-end ownership of subsystems: architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, on-call, evolution.
• Develop a mental model of a highly distributed production system and contribute high-leverage changes.
• Identify opportunities to evolve the system and tooling.
• Collaborate with engineers and scientists on distributed systems and ML-driven decisions.
• Diagnose timing- or statistics-related issues in a concurrent, multi-region system.
• Mentor engineers to raise engineering rigor and testing discipline.
• Communicate with technical and non-technical stakeholders to align across teams.

Skills

Distributed systems

Java

Algorithms

Concurrency

Performance optimization

Cloud platforms

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

SQL

NoSQL

Job description

Overview

Teamwork makes the stream work. Roku is changing how the world watches TV. Roku is the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and we aim to power every television in the world. We connect consumers to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers unique capabilities to engage consumers.

From your first day at Roku, you'll make a valuable – and valued – contribution. We're a fast-growing public company where no one is a bystander. We offer you the opportunity to delight millions of TV streamers around the world while gaining meaningful experience across a variety of disciplines.

About the Team

Roku's Ad Serving Team builds and operates the real-time advertising platform that powers all of Roku’s ad monetization across video, display, and native ad formats. Within Ad Serving, the Demand Bidder team owns the high-throughput and low-latency systems responsible for serving relevant ads for tens of thousands of campaigns through targeting, scoring, bidding, auctions, measurement and more. Every millisecond and every decision carries direct, measurable revenue impact, and the team operates with the high engineering rigor that this demands.

About the Role

We're hiring a Senior Software Engineer (Staff scope) to help scale and evolve this platform. Demand Bidder is a large, high-throughput system driving our next phase of growth. As we onboard a rapid wave of new businesses, we are actively scaling and advancing our architecture — including a state-of-the-art pacing engine, scoring/ML engine, and modularizing designed for agentic development. Our reliability bar keeps climbing alongside our business scale. We need someone who can rapidly master this intricate ecosystem and take immediate ownership of key initiatives.

For Massachusetts Only — The estimated annual salary for this position is between $195,500 – $352,100 annually. Compensation packages are based on factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, certifications, and specific geographical location. This role is eligible for health insurance, equity awards, life insurance, disability benefits, parental leave, wellness benefits, and paid time off.

How will I use AI at Roku?

At Roku, we don’t just use AI, we work with it. AI agents and smart tools help power drafts, analysis, and repetitive workflows, while our people bring direction, judgment, and accountability. We’re looking for curious, adaptable builders who can show how they’ve used AI or automation to move faster, raise the bar, and scale their impact.

We value your AI skills if you have built fluency across the agentic engineering toolchain — coding harnesses like Claude Code or Cursor, MCP servers, custom skills, or agent frameworks. And you can describe projects where you shipped real work with these tools. You know how to drive an agent, verify its output, and ramp on an unfamiliar codebase with an agent helping you.

What You'll Be Doing

• Design, build, and operate core components of a large-scale, real-time distributed decisioning system with strict latency requirements
• Take end-to-end ownership of specific subsystems: architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, on-call, and long-term evolution
• Build a working mental model of a highly distributed, complex production system, and make high-leverage contributions
• Identify opportunities to continuously evolve the system and tooling
• Partner with engineers and applied scientists working at the intersection of distributed systems and statistical/ML-driven decision-making
• Diagnose and resolve subtle, often timing- or statistics-related issues in a highly concurrent, multi-region distributed system
• Mentor other engineers and raise the bar on engineering rigor, testing discipline, and operational excellence across the team
• Communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, and drive alignment across engineering, product, and business partners

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale, low-latency distributed systems — ideally including at least one system you built substantially from the ground up
• A demonstrated track record of owning complex systems end-to-end: design, build, operate, on-call, and iterate based on production feedback
• Ability to ramp quickly into unfamiliar, complex, large codebases and become productive fast
• Experience evolving and refactoring live, business-critical systems without compromising uptime or correctness
• Strong command of Java, with a solid foundation in algorithms, data structures, concurrency/multi-threading, and performance optimization
• Practical experience with distributed caching, high-throughput messaging/streaming systems, and SQL/NoSQL datastores
• Comfort operating in cloud infrastructure (GCP or AWS) at scale
• Exposure to applying statistical, control-theory, or ML-driven techniques within production decision-making systems is a strong plus
• Real-time bidding / ad-tech domain experience is a big plus, but deep experience in adjacent high-stakes, low-latency domains is equally valued
• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• High ownership, self-motivation, critical thinking, and comfort operating with ambiguity
• Low-ego and nonpolitical — you'd rather get to the right answer than be the one who's right
• Genuinely collaborative and team-oriented, with an open mind toward other people's approaches
• You've used AI coding assistants in real production work to accelerate design, implement, debug, and understand unfamiliar codebases
• You're curious about applying AI and using it to monitor system health, triage issues, or develop agentic workflows
• You hold yourself to a high bar of correctness and understanding of what you ship
• First-principles curiosity and willingness to shape how the team uses these tools responsibly

Hybrid Working

Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams generally work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are generally flexible for remote work, except for employees whose specific roles or assigned office location require five days a week attendance.

Benefits

Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension). Employees are supported in taking time off, in accordance with local leave policies and other personal needs to support their evolving work and life needs. Not every benefit is available in all locations or for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your recruiter.

Accommodations

Roku welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments in accordance with applicable law. If you require reasonable accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please direct your inquiries to [e-mail].

Culture

Roku is a fast-paced environment where teams focus on the company's success and collaboration. We value practical problem-solving, openness to others' approaches, and trust. We're committed to innovation and delivering results for customers. To learn more, visit the Roku factsheet: https://www.weareroku.com/factsheet.

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