About the role

As a Staff Software Engineer at Moloco, you will help build the systems and products that power intelligent advertising and machine learning solutions for customers around the world. You will work on complex, large-scale problems at the intersection of software engineering, data, machine learning, and product development, turning them into reliable and intuitive solutions for customers and internal partners.

This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who combines strong technical depth with broad organizational impact. You will contribute to technical direction, lead critical initiatives from concept to production, and partner with teams across Moloco to deliver products and platforms that are scalable, measurable, and trusted by our customers.

Here’s what you’ll be working on:

• Set technical direction for key product and platform initiatives, influencing architecture, engineering standards, and long-term technical strategy.
• Lead complex, cross-functional projects from problem framing and requirements definition through technical design, implementation, launch, and post-launch improvement.
• Design, implement, and operate scalable backend services, APIs, data systems, and workflows that support Moloco’s products and customer experiences.
• Translate ambiguous business and customer problems into clear technical solutions, balancing product impact, engineering quality, delivery timelines, and operational cost.
• Partner closely with Product, Data, ML, UX, and other Engineering teams to define scope, align stakeholders, and make effective technical and product trade-offs.
• Build and improve systems that help customers manage, deliver, measure, and optimize their business outcomes.
• Improve system reliability, performance, scalability, and observability through strong engineering practices, including testing, metrics, logging, monitoring, incident response, and operational reviews.
• Raise the engineering bar across the organization by driving design reviews, sharing best practices, and promoting thoughtful approaches to maintainability and technical excellence.
• Mentor and support engineers across levels, helping them grow their technical judgment, project ownership, and ability to operate effectively in a global engineering organization.
• Represent the team in broader technical discussions and help align near-term execution with Moloco’s longer-term product and engineering goals.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience building and operating backend systems, platforms, or user-facing products at scale.
• Strong proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as Java, Go, Kotlin, C++, or Python.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, service-oriented architecture, data structures, algorithms, and system design.
• Proven experience designing and operating reliable, high-throughput services and APIs in production environments.
• Experience working with relational or NoSQL databases and large-scale data systems, such as BigQuery, Bigtable, MySQL, or PostgreSQL.
• Track record of leading complex technical initiatives that span multiple components, teams, or disciplines, including aligning stakeholders and delivering high-quality results.
• Demonstrated ability to make sound technical decisions in ambiguous situations and clearly communicate the rationale, trade-offs, and expected impact.
• Experience collaborating closely with Product, Data, ML, UX, and Engineering partners to shape product direction and execution plans.
• Strong ownership mindset, with experience driving projects end-to-end and remaining engaged through launch, operation, and continuous improvement.
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing engineering practices, team culture, or technical strategy beyond your immediate area.
• Fluent verbal and written communication skills in English, with the ability to lead technical discussions with global and cross-functional stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building products or platforms in digital advertising, machine learning, media, e-commerce, fintech, or other data-intensive domains.
• Experience with large-scale distributed systems, real-time or near-real-time processing, high-volume data pipelines, or latency-sensitive services.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms and big-data technologies such as GCP, BigQuery, Dataflow, Kafka, Beam, or Spark.
• Experience integrating data pipelines, schemas, data contracts, analytics, and reporting capabilities into customer-facing products.
• Experience defining or improving reliability practices, including SLIs/SLOs, capacity planning, backfill strategies, cost management, and incident response.
• Ability to simplify complex technical or operational concepts into clear product experiences, APIs, and workflows.
• Experience working in a global or multi-region environment, especially where customer needs, market dynamics, or regulations differ by region.
• Demonstrated success influencing technical direction across organizational boundaries without relying on formal authority.
• Experience building inclusive, collaborative teams and helping engineers develop their technical and leadership capabilities.