Software Engineer L5 - Ads Engineering

Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services, with over 300 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.

We launched a new ad-supported tier in November 2022 and are building an in-house world-class ad tech ecosystem to offer our members more choices in consuming their content. Our new tier allows us to attract new members at a lower price point while also creating a compelling path for advertisers to reach deeply engaged audiences.

We wrapped up our first two years of the journey and are well into year three with more exciting things to come!

The Ads Engineering team at Netflix is dedicated to creating a world-class advertising ecosystem that drives our advertising business. This team's mission is to develop advanced technology that ensures exceptional experiences for both our members and advertisers. Our responsibilities encompass a broad spectrum of products, ranging from sales and media planning to optimizing advertiser outcomes and execution. This includes inventory and order management, campaign execution, ad serving, audience and identity management, measurement, reporting, and finance.

We use several Netflix investments and innovations - a unique mix of client and server-side ad insertions, state-of-the-art content delivery systems, ad encoding recipes, content understanding, and metadata, etc. We deliver ads in a manner that’s thoughtful of our member’s viewing experience and drive great outcomes for advertisers. We also ensure that advertiser brand safety is ensured during serving so that members only see the most appropriate ads for them.

Our team is faced with the enormous ambitions of building highly performant advertising systems and delivering high impact to our business by monetizing our incredible slate of content. As one of the newest entrants in the Connected TV advertising space that’s rapidly growing, we seek to build unique value propositions that help us differentiate us and become a market leader in record time. Our roles come with expectations of delivering in a rapid clip,  comfort with  lofty goals and big ambitions,   the visibility that comes with strategic initiatives, and  responsibility and an appetite to operate like a startup within an established company.

We are looking for engineers to join us on this journey, to be a part of some exciting initiatives, and the talented teams who work on realizing our ambitious vision.

• Well grounded domain experience in any of the following areas: Ad Serving, Ads Identity & Audiences, Ads Creatives, Inventory & Forecasting, Campaign Management, Media Planning, Measurement, Reporting, or Ads Finance.

• General understanding of the advertising marketplace and landscape. 

• Worked closely with ad operations to enable campaign setup, targeting, reporting and advertiser needs. 

• Developed many cloud based applications and comfortable with modern programming languages (preferably object oriented),

• Familiar with A/B testing and experimentation.

• Have solid experience in setting technical directions for engineering projects, making architectural decisions, and influencing partner and cross-functional teams.

• Contributed to an ads industry technology standard (e.g  VAST, OpenRTB) or worked on an industry consortium effort, working group etc.

• Familiarity with legal compliance and changing landscape of ads regulations around the world.

• Experience working in the CTV space and knowledge of it’s unique constraints

Spotlight on Ads Engineering Teams:

The Ads Member Experience team is part of the core Ads Serving group and is responsible for building and serving the different ad formats available on the platform. The team owns the integration between the different Netflix clients (TV, mobile app, web) and the ads serving infrastructure. One of Its primary goals is to optimize how different ad formats are integrated with the Netflix member experience, in order to better serve both our users and our advertisers.

The Core Ad Serving team designs and operates the scalable, resilient backend frameworks and services that form the foundation of our advertising platform, powering ad decisioning, targeting, frequency capping and policy enforcement at global scale. We also architect and build the distributed systems that enable real-time dynamic ad insertion for live events, ensuring low latency ad delivery to millions of concurrent viewers. In addition, we develop and integrate advanced optimization systems that use machine learning to maximize advertiser outcomes and campaign performance, all while maintaining an exceptional viewing experience for our members.

The Ads Programmatic team at Netflix is responsible for the strategic development and operational execution of programmatic advertising within the Netflix Ad Server ecosystem. This team focuses on building third-party demand integrations to maximize programmatic channels, driving significant advertising revenue for Netflix, while ensuring positive performance and value delivery for advertising partners. The team is dedicated to building a world-class programmatic advertising ecosystem that significantly contributes to the overall success of Netflix's advertising business.

The Ad Supply team manages the policies and technical integrations for third-party ad supply. While Netflix has traditionally licensed content, we're now exploring an alternative funding model where third-party partners contribute content in exchange for a share of the ad revenue. This team's job is to build the rules that enable this co-selling model to work smoothly. They solve complex challenges, such as determining how both Netflix and the third-party partner can sell ad inventory for the same content without conflict. They establish clear rules for inventory sharing, campaign setup, and system configurations to ensure consistency and fairness. 

The Ads Measurement engineering team builds systems that enable advertisers on Netflix to quantify campaign outcomes. Leveraging a blend of Netflix innovations and both first-party and third-party solutions, we deliver ads that respect the viewing experience while driving impactful results for advertisers. Our tools empower advertisers to effectively measure and analyze these outcomes.

The Netflix Ads Identity and Audience team is dedicated to delivering a relevant and engaging advertising experience while prioritizing consumer privacy. Our mission is to maintain precise subscriber identities to ensure that ads are not only engaging but also respectful of consumer privacy choices and regional regulations. We maintain a high-quality Identity Graph which is used for various purposes, including respecting privacy choice and regulations, audience onboarding, targeting, measurement, and reporting.

The Ads Creatives & Policy team at Netflix is at the forefront of developing innovative solutions that enhance the ad experience for both viewers and advertisers. We are responsible for managing the lifecycle of ad creatives, ensuring compliance with policies, and leveraging cutting-edge technology to optimize ad delivery. Joining our team means being part of a dynamic environment where your contributions directly impact the viewing experience of millions worldwide.

The Delivery Management & Ad Platform Foundations team focuses on two key areas - first is enabling the set up, proactive monitoring, and troubleshooting of advertisers campaigns to ensure delivery and the second is our foundational work that crosses all of the Netflix Ad Suite to ensure developers and end-users alike are as efficient as possible in achieving their day to day tasks.

The Ads Media Planning team is at the heart of designing and delivering state-of-the-art media planning solutions that power Netflix’s advertising business. We are developing innovative, in-house ad tech systems that enable advertisers and internal partners to efficiently plan, allocate, and optimize media investments across Netflix’s platform. Our technology translates advertiser objectives into actionable media plans, ensuring seamless integration, automation, optimization, compliance, and management of media strategies at scale. We work closely with cross-functional teams to deliver robust media planning capabilities that serve our advertisers, members, and Netflix’s broader business goals.

More about Netflix:

Our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $170,000 - $720,000.

Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs.  Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more detail about our Benefits here.

Netflix is a unique culture and environment.  Learn more here.

Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.