Lead Staff Software Engineer

The Trade Desk is a global technology company with a mission to create a better, more open internet for everyone through principled, intelligent advertising. Handling over 1 trillion queries per day, our platform operates at an unprecedented scale. We have also built something even stronger and more valuable: an award‑winning culture based on trust, ownership, empathy, and collaboration. We value the unique experiences and perspectives that each person brings to The Trade Desk, and we are committed to fostering inclusive spaces where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work every day.

Do you have a passion for solving hard problems at scale? Are you eager to join a dynamic, globally‑connected team where your contributions will make a meaningful difference in building a better media ecosystem? Come and see why Fortune magazine consistently ranks The Trade Desk among the best small‑ to medium‑sized workplaces globally.

What We Do

Our Lead Staff Software Engineers are end‑to‑end owners who will participate in all aspects of designing, building, and delivering data‑focused products for our stakeholders. At The Trade Desk we believe that each opportunity to engage with all internal and external stakeholders is unique. This means you will have the opportunity, based on your interests and background, to work on large‑scale distributed systems coordinating thousands of servers in cloud and physical data centers around the world, petabyte‑scale data challenges, machine learning, advanced visualizations, and interactive user interfaces – to name a few. Our system performs all day, every day serving global traffic. It’s important we focus on quality at scale in an agile environment that is based on collaboration, ownership, and trust. Our software engineering teams fully own their charter to work on long term roadmaps while enhancing existing features or tools and continuously gaining efficiency.

What you’ll do

• Technical leadership
• Active reviewer of design and code reviews
• Deliver meaningful technical and hands‑on contributions toward the team’s objectives
• Understand strategic business priorities and communicate with the team on how their work fits into the whole.
• Own project level processes and execution
• Collaborate with the PM (product management) team to develop the roadmap and MVP plans
• Develop execution plans (resources, milestones, and timelines) for the roadmaps
• Continuously analyze and optimize team efficiency
• Establish and deliver on team commitments
• Measure and maintain/improve the quality of the team’s contributions
• Communicate important developments and changes to area leadership and other stakeholders

People management

• Manage small team
• Help team members develop career growth plans
• Give regular and effective feedback
• Hold weekly 1:1s with directs
• Annual reviews & compensation recommendations

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

You have a sustained track record of leading engineers with a wide range of experience, while also making significant, self‑directed, and end‑to‑end contributions to large and impactful software projects. You think beyond just the task at hand to deeply understand the ‘why’ behind what you & your team are doing. You are a driver. You will be driving technical projects and providing leadership in a ground‑breaking and fast‑paced environment. This includes task planning and conducting code reviews, as well as individual code contribution. You understand engineering fundamentals. At our scale, many off‑the‑shelf techniques and existing technologies (open source and enterprise) simply don’t work. You are able to work from first principles to evaluate solutions and adapt them to a unique environment.

Develop with a variety of platforms and technologies, such Docker, Kubernetes, Gitlab, AWS, Azure, .NET Core, SQL Server, Authenticate and authorization, and micro services architecture. Commercial development skills in OO programming (C#, Java or C++) and design. Cloud‑based platform experience (AWS, Azure or Aliyun). Excellent understanding of Agile development methodology and development practices. Understanding of designing web‑based, service‑oriented applications and integrated back‑office systems. Experience in distributed source control system (such as Git).

You work with confidence and without ego. Our engineers have deep knowledge and exercise a high degree of leadership in their daily work. You have strongly‑held, defensible ideas, and advocate for what you believe is right. You are also adept at identifying and evaluating trade‑offs, willing to be proven wrong, and quick to walk through fire to support your fellow teammates. You value, seek out, and foster diversity. We are a global team from many diverse backgrounds, with different experiences and perspectives. To complement this team, you will welcome ideas that are different from your own and be skilled at finding and building from common ground. You are a creative thinker, not bound by “the way things have always been done”. What you know is less important than how well you learn and innovate. We don’t need engineers who know all the answers; we need engineers who can invent the answers no one has thought of yet, to the questions yet to be asked.

A variety of technical opportunities is one of the best things about working at The Trade Desk as a software engineer, which is why we do not expect you to know every technology we use when you start. What we care about is that you can learn quickly and find solutions to complex problems using the optimum tools for the job. What you know is less important than how well you learn and innovate. We are not seeking engineers who know all the answers; we need engineers who can invent answers no one has thought of yet and find answers to the questions yet to be asked.

The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

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