Staff Software Engineer - CTV (Ad Server)

PubMatic is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help architect and evolve our next-generation, highly scalable, low-latency AdServer for Connected TV (CTV) – operating at a scale of 1 trillion+ requests per day and managing millions of requests per second. This is a technical leadership role for an engineer who wants to shape the architectural direction of the CTV AdServer platform, not just one team’s roadmap, in one of the fastest-growing areas of programmatic advertising. If you thrive on solving distributed-systems problems at extreme scale, enjoy influencing engineering direction across multiple teams, and want to be one of the most senior technical voices in the organization, we’d love to talk to you.

What You'll Do

• Product & Architecture Influence: Influence multiple teams across the AdServer organization by defining and reviewing product and platform architecture and implementations. Identify architectural risks early and propose alternatives and solutions that hold up at trillion-scale.
• Architectural Oversight: Oversee the design and implementation of critical platform components by maintaining in-depth knowledge of best practices, technologies, architectures, and emerging technologies, and by setting the technical bar for the AdServer engineering organization.
• Standards & Decisions: Document and communicate exceptions to architectural standards by capturing significant architectural decisions (ADRs), ensuring decisions and their rationale are visible, durable, and reusable across teams.
• Own end-to-end technical direction for the AdServer platform – partnering with Principal and Senior Principal Engineers, Engineering Leads, and Product Leads to translate business needs into a coherent, multi-quarter technical roadmap.
• Lead the design and evolution of highly reliable, scalable, low-latency distributed backend platforms and services, and set the technical direction that other teams build on.
• Drive research into emerging technologies, sponsor proof-of-concepts, and make build/adopt decisions that materially move the platform forward.
• Act as a technical escalation point across teams – auditing designs for platform stability, reviewing major architecture changes across the AdServer Development Team, and unblocking the hardest cross-cutting problems.
• Partner with Data Center and DevOps teams on long-range technical planning – new technology adoption, software optimization strategy, and stability roadmaps for the overall platform.
• Mentor and raise the technical bar of Principal and Senior Principal Engineers, and other senior ICs, through design reviews, architecture forums, and hands-on technical guidance.
• Champion engineering best practices and documentation standards across teams; ensure designs meet requirements and that platform-wide work meets a consistently high quality bar.
• Drive the application of GenAI across the software development lifecycle – design, coding, testing, and documentation – and help set the standard for AI-enabled engineering across the org.

We'd Love for You to Have

• 14+ years of hands-on development experience in C/C++ in a Linux/UNIX environment, with a track record of shipping and evolving large-scale distributed systems. Experience with Go is a strong plus.
• Demonstrated experience defining architecture and technical direction across multiple teams or a full platform, not just a single service or team.
• Deep proficiency in algorithms and advanced data structures, with a strong foundation in core computer science principles.
• Extensive experience in software design and architecture for complex, scalable, low-latency, high-throughput systems.
• A track record of identifying architectural risk ahead of time and driving alternatives that are adopted broadly.
• Ability to write and review architectural decision records, and to communicate trade-offs clearly to both engineering and product stakeholders.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to find optimal, innovative solutions to open-ended technical problems.
• Strong working knowledge of generative AI-based tools and IDEs to accelerate development; comfort with prompt engineering fundamentals and an understanding of different model types at a working level.
• Deep knowledge of OS internals and systems programming – multi-threading, multi-processing, and memory management – and the ability to troubleshoot the hardest production issues.
• Ability to write clean, modular, loosely coupled code, and to hold others to that same bar through review.
• Strong end-to-end understanding of product functionality across the platform, not just an individual component.
• Working knowledge of scripting (Perl/Python/Shell) and databases (preferably MySQL).
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, with experience influencing senior stakeholders and driving alignment across teams without direct authority.

Good to Have - CTV Domain Experience:

• Prior hands-on experience building or scaling ad serving, ad decisioning, or real-time bidding systems specifically for Connected TV (CTV) / OTT.
• Working knowledge of CTV-specific technical protocols and standards – e.g. VAST/VPAID/VMAP, SSAI (server-side ad insertion) and CSAI, HLS/DASH manifest manipulation, and IAB CTV/OTT specifications.
• Understanding of the CTV supply chain and its unique constraints – device- and app-level identifiers (e.g. IFA, RIDA), frequency capping and pod/ad-break management, content-level targeting, and the latency/quality bar required for a living-room viewing experience.
• Familiarity with SSAI stitching architectures and the trade-offs between client-side and server-side ad insertion at scale.
• Exposure to OTT/streaming platforms, smart TV operating systems (e.g. Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, tvOS, Samsung Tizen, LG webOS), or set-top box environments, and the constraints they place on ad delivery.
• Understanding of CTV measurement, viewability, and completion-rate reporting requirements, and how they differ from traditional display/video.
• Awareness of the evolving CTV privacy and identity landscape (e.g. data clean rooms, alternative identifiers, cross-device graphs) and its implications for ad server architecture.

 AI-Enabled Engineering Mindset:

We value engineers who actively leverage Generative AI tools and IDEs (e.g. GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Windsurf etc.) to accelerate development, improve code quality, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance documentation and debugging workflows. Engineers who demonstrate AI-first thinking using these tools to drive faster experimentation, ideation, and technical execution will thrive in our high-scale, performance-critical environment.

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering (CS/IT) or an equivalent degree from a well-known institute or university; advanced degree is a plus but not required given depth of experience.

Additional Information: