Staff Software Engineer

Who we are:
The Trade Desk is a global technology company with a mission to create a better, more open internet for everyone through principled, intelligent advertising. Handling over 1 trillion queries per day, our platform operates at an unprecedented scale. We have also built something even stronger and more valuable: an award-winning culture based on trust, ownership, empathy, and collaboration.

We value the unique experiences and perspectives that each person brings to The Trade Desk, and we are committed to fostering inclusive spaces where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work every day.

Do you have a passion for solving hard problems at scale? Are you eager to join a dynamic, globally- connected team where your contributions will make a meaningful difference in building a better media ecosystem? Come and see why Fortune magazine consistently ranks The Trade Desk among the best small- to medium-sized workplaces globally.

What we do:
At The Trade Desk, we believe in building the platform with a focus on quality at scale. This means whether we are building parts of our client-facing applications, distributed backend services, or model pipelines for bidding optimizations, we are making sure that we have infrastructure, development, and tools to do it right and efficiently.

Our system performs all day, every day serving global traffic. We built a distributed system in a highly collaborative environment, utilizing a broad range of technologies. Our back-end developers work on finding solutions to algorithmic, optimization and scale challenges in everything we do.

We are a global team with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. To complement this team, you will welcome ideas that are different from your own and be well-versed in building from common ground to value, seek out, and foster invisible and visible dimensions of diversity.

About the Role:
We are seeking a Staff or Sr. Staff Software Engineer to join our Developer Experience team, focused on building AI powered developer platforms that accelerate engineering velocity and improve developer workflows. This role sits at the intersection of developer experience, AI, and platform engineering, and is ideal for someone passionate about reducing developer friction through intelligent and scalable platforms.

You will lead initiatives that integrate Generative AI (GenAI), LLMs, and agentic systems into the software development lifecycle (SDLC), shaping how engineers solve business problems, write, review, test, and ship code.

Responsibilities:

• Architect and implement scalable backend services and developer tools that integrate with LLMs and GenAI systems.
• Design and build AI-powered developer productivity solutions such as code review agents, smart CI/CD pipelines, and local dev environments.
• Collaborate with ML engineers, product managers, and platform teams to deliver end-to-end AI-enhanced developer experiences.
• Lead technical direction, mentor engineers, and drive adoption of internal platforms across engineering teams.
• Ensure reliability, observability, and performance of developer infrastructure and AI systems.
• Stay current with emerging AI technologies and developer tooling trends to continuously improve platform capabilities.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with 3+ years in developer platform/productivity teams.
• Proven experience integrating AI/LLM-based tools into production systems.
• Strong backend development skills in C#/Java, Python, Go and experience with cloud-native platforms (AWS/Kubernetes, Databricks).
• Deep understanding of GenAI techniques including MCP, RAG, prompt engineering, and model fine-tuning.
• Experience building scalable, robust services and developer-facing tools.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Passion for improving developer experience and productivity
• Experience with tools like Claude Code, Cursor, Claude/OpenAI APIs, LangFuse, or similar.
• Prior experience in technical leadership roles.
• Contributions to open-source developer tools or AI frameworks.

CO, CA, IL, NY, WA, and Washington DC residents only:
In accordance with CO, CA, IL, NY, WA, and Washington DC law, the range provided is The Trade Desk's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount may differ based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and location. All employees may be eligible to become The Trade Desk shareholders through eligibility for stock-based compensation grants, which are awarded to employees based on company and individual performance. The Trade Desk also offers other compensation depending on the role such as sales-based incentives and commissions. Plus, expected benefits for this role include comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) with premiums paid in full for employees and dependents, retirement benefits such as a 401k plan and company match, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, well-being benefits, reimbursement for certain tuition expenses, parental leave, sick time of 1 hour per 30 hours worked, vacation time for full-time employees up to 120 hours thru the first year and 160 hours thereafter, and around 13 paid holidays per year. Employees can also purchase The Trade Desk stock at a discount through The Trade Desk's Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

The Trade Desk also offers a competitive benefits package. Click here to learn more.

Note:
Interns are not eligible for variable incentive awards such as stock-based compensation, retirement plan, vacation, tuition reimbursement or parental leave

At the Trade Desk, Base Salary is one part of our competitive total compensation and benefits package and is determined using a salary range. The base salary range for this role is

$200,000—$250,000 USD

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Please reach out to us at accommodations@ thetradedesk. com to request an accommodation or discuss any accessibility needs you may require to access our Company Website or navigate any part of the hiring process.

When you contact us, please include your preferred contact details and specify the nature of your accommodation request or questions. Any information you share will be handled confidentially and will not impact our hiring decisions.