At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a team to build and maintain cutting-edge data-driven systems.
- Company: Join The Trade Desk, a global leader in digital advertising technology.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, inclusive culture, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Diverse team environment with a focus on learning and collaboration.
- Why this job: Make a worldwide impact while working with next-gen hardware and innovative technologies.
- Qualifications: Experience with Linux and a passion for troubleshooting and performance engineering.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
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.
We are looking to hire a Lead Systems Reliability Engineer to join our engineering team to continue building and maintaining our data‑driven platform. We leverage technologies like Aerospike, MongoDB, and Kafka to perform many real‑time activities, translating to a p99 latency under 1 millisecond on the back end!
What makes this role different:
- First in the Industry: The Trade Desk is the first company to run over 5MM QPS to NVMe in Aerospike on a single node, forcing core software redesigns to achieve this scale.
- Work on Cutting‑Edge Hardware: Design clusters with nodes featuring 300TB of NVMe, 3TB RAM, and 512 cores, delivering a global 2,500GB/s throughput directly from flash.
- Shape the Future of Infrastructure: Spec your own systems and collaborate directly with AMD and NoSQL vendors to run PoCs and optimize bleeding‑edge technology for internet‑scale workloads.
- Deep Performance Engineering: Dive into kernel, hardware, and system interactions, leveraging tools like flamegraphs, NUMA counters, BIOS tuning, and synthetic testing to achieve world‑class performance.
- Push Hardware Endurance Limits: Build clusters engineered to withstand over 1 zettabyte of endurance.
What you’ll do:
- Lead a team to influence, manage, and plan work streams, systems, and data structures at scale within a global ecosystem, spanning multiple infrastructure providers (cloud and traditional datacenters).
- Encourage, improve, and build infrastructure automation in a way that works with stateful systems at scale.
- Own operations for Linux‑based systems running Aerospike, Kafka, and Mongo.
- Serve as a point of contact to review new use cases, answer questions, and participate in on‑call rotation.
- Learn to be a NoSQL SME. You do not need experience to apply – we will train you.
- Benchmark and analyze next generation hardware offerings.
Who you are:
Skills and Experience:
- Linux operating system
- Leadership experience and ability to mentor
- Troubleshooting techniques for isolation, scientific method
- Identify bottlenecks (Is it CPU? IO?)
Nice‑To‑Have experience:
- Physical hardware (on‑prem) internals, management, and operation
- Performing testing and tuning
- Databases (relational or NoSQL)
- Ansible/PyInfra/Chef
- Prometheus
- Kubernetes
- Python/Ruby/Rust/Bash/Golang/C#
You are an empathetic, objective, critical thinker, welcoming ideas and understanding perspectives that are different from your own. You are a creative thinker, not bound by
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Lead Staff Systems Reliability Engineer (Linux & Distributed Systems)
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Thetradedesk or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Thetradedesk.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Thetradedesk.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Thetradedesk that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Lead Staff Systems Reliability Engineer (Linux & Distributed Systems)
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Thetradedesk.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Thetradedesk and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Thetradedesk
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Thetradedesk uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
