Staff Software Engineer

Company at a Glance

OpenX is focused on unleashing the full economic potential of digital media companies. We do this by making digital advertising markets and technologies that are designed to deliver optimal value to publishers and advertisers on every ad served across all screens.

At OpenX, we have built a team that is uniquely experienced in designing and operating high-scale ad marketplaces, and we are constantly on the lookout for thoughtful, creative executors who are as fascinated as we are about finding new ways to apply a blend of market design, technical innovation, operational excellence, and empathetic partner service to the frontiers of digital advertising.

OpenX is focused on unleashing the full economic potential of digital media companies. We do this by making digital advertising markets and technologies that are designed to deliver optimal value to publishers and advertisers on every ad served across all screens.

At OpenX, we have built a team that is uniquely experienced in designing and operating high-scale ad marketplaces, and we are constantly on the lookout for thoughtful, creative executors who are as fascinated as we are about finding new ways to apply a blend of market design, technical innovation, operational excellence, and empathetic partner service to the frontiers of digital advertising.

We’re seeking a Staff Software Engineer with strong platform and cloud expertise to shape and scale the next generation of our real-time integrations. You will architect, build, and deliver reliable, secure services that enable partners to connect with the OpenX platform.

In this role, you’ll lead major technical initiatives, influence architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and ensure our integrations and platform components operate with exceptional performance and reliability.

• Open-minded – Welcomes feedback, learns from failure, and adapts quickly to change.
• Proactive – Takes initiative to identify problems and drive thoughtful, effective solutions.
• Self-motivated & Organized – Manages priorities independently and follows through with clarity and accountability.

• Architect and build low-latency systems operating at 1M+ QPS.
• Design and deliver systems that let partners connect and run real-time workloads securely and efficiently.
• Collaborate with partner engineering and product teams to plan, build, and launch integrations aligned with business and technical needs.
• Own critical platform features from end-to-end, from design through rollout and adoption.
• Proactively identify and resolve performance bottlenecks and scalability risks.
• Set technical direction and guide implementation across the team.
• Promote engineering quality through reviews, mentoring, and driving best practices in code, architecture, and platform design.

• 10+ years of software development experience with deep expertise in Go or other high-performance languages (Java, C++, Rust).
• Strong foundation in distributed systems, Kubernetes, and containerized service architectures.
• Skilled at debugging and stabilizing production systems under high load.
• Deep understanding of concurrency, networked systems, and service orchestration.
• Hands-on experience designing and operating production workloads on a major cloud platform (GCP preferred).
• Demonstrated success delivering large-scale, high-performance, and reliable systems.
• Experience integrating services with gRPC, Thrift, REST, and MCP.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to anticipate and address scalability, reliability, and privacy challenges.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills across engineering, product, and partner teams.
• Proven experience mentoring senior engineers and raising technical standards.

• Experience in digital advertising, RTB, or other high-volume transactional systems.
• Familiarity with OpenRTB and/or Prebid.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD workflows, infrastructure as code (IaC) patterns, and observability practices, with working familiarity of tools like Terraform, Helm, and Grafana.
• Expertise in designing and scaling RESTful APIs, including data modeling, error handling, performance tuning, and security best practices.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools to enhance productivity.

Pursuant to any state, local ordinance, or local hiring regulations, we will consider for employment any qualified applicant, including those with arrest and conviction records, in a manner consistent with the applicable regulation. 

OpenX is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. For all applicants, the base salary range is noted above, per year + bonus + equity + benefits. A candidate’s salary is determined by various factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, and certifications. 

A summary of our benefits, which include medical, dental, vision, 401k, equity and more, can be viewed here: https://www.openx.com/company/careers/ A candidate’s salary is determined by various factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, and certifications.  

OpenX VALUES

Our five company values form a solid bedrock serving to define us as a group and guide the company. Our values remind us that how we do things often matters as much as what we do.

WE ARE ONE

We are one team. There are no exceptions. We are a group of strong and diverse individuals unified by a shared mission. We embrace challenges and win together as a team. We respect and care about our colleagues and cultivate an inclusive culture

WE ARE CUSTOMER CENTRIC

We innovate on behalf of our customers. We understand, respect, and listen carefully to our customers. We build great products to solve our customers’ problems. We manage our customers’ expectations clearly and honestly. We are a trusted partner to all of our customers - we act with integrity at all times. We care.

OPENX IS OURS

We are all owners of OpenX

We all have a voice to improve OpenX

We stake our personal and professional reputations on the excellence of our work

We are not interested in just "doing our jobs"; we take ownership to drive results

WE ARE AN OPEN BOOK

We understand and respect what each of us does. We are eager to teach and share what we know with others, both internally and externally. We are eager to learn from others and we ask questions internally and externally. 

WE EVOLVE FAST

We take responsible risks and own and learn from our mistakes. We recognize and repeat success. We actively seek out and provide constructive feedback. We adapt quickly and embrace change. We tackle growth and learning with real urgency. We are endlessly curious.

OpenX TRAITS

Our three traits capture what makes a great team member at OpenX.

HUMBLE

Ideal team players are humble and demonstrate integrity. They put the team's success above their own, share credit generously, and value collective achievements. They are self-assured, open to coaching, and committed to continuous learning.

DRIVEN

Ideal team players are results-driven and motivated. They are curious, always seeking more to do, learn, and take on. As proactive problem-solvers, they take initiative without needing external motivation. They continuously think about the next steps and opportunities for improvement.

SMART

Ideal team players are smart and possess the intellectual acumen to understand the complexities of our organization and industry. They are interpersonally intelligent, good communicators, and exemplify sound judgment in their interactions across the company to foster a collaborative environment.

OpenX is committed to equal employment opportunities.

It is a fundamental principle at OpenX not to discriminate against employees or applicants for employment on any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: age, race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, sex, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics, genetic information, military or veteran status, marital status, gender identity/transgender status, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition, and other protected characteristic as established by law.

OpenX Applicant Privacy Policy

Applicants can review our Applicant Privacy Policy at any time by visiting the following link: https://www.openx.com/privacy-center/applicant-privacy-policy/.

Effective Date: November 21, 2024