Senior Software Engineer - Price Optimization & Bidding

thetradedesk

Bellevue; Boulder; Seattle

Posted Jan 12, 2026

Full-time
Hybrid
Software Engineering

Job description

The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with nearly 4,000 employees across more than 30 offices. Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet — from streaming TV and podcasts to mobile apps, news, and more.

Advertising powers the content people love. By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. The world’s brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly.

The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges — from processing massive datasets in real time to building systems that operate reliably on a global scale. When you work here, your impact is worldwide. We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another. If you’re driven to solve meaningful challenges, we’d love to meet you.

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.

About the Role:

The Performance Automation team is dedicated to developing optimization tools that enhance our clients' advertising campaign outcomes, ensuring they meet or surpass their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

You will be working on enhancing machine learning model development; creating the tools and frameworks that allow for quicker iteration and refinement of models by data scientists, from creating ETLs that process petabytes of data to experimenting with novel model training architectures. You will be responsible for integrating models in our bidding infrastructure, where low latency and high performance are of paramount importance; your code will be running millions of times per second on datacenters across the entire globe.

You will be also working on developing and improving debugging and analytical tools for monitoring and adjusting the bidding system in real-time. Utilize these tools to quickly identify and address any issues, improving campaign efficiency and ensuring effective use of budgets and resources.

Our Software Engineer team members will participate actively in all aspects of designing, building, and delivering products for our clients.

We have dozens of mission-focused teams working across a wide spectrum of technological challenges. You will have the opportunity, depending on your interests and aptitude, to work on large-scale distributed systems coordinating thousands of servers in cloud and physical data centers around the world, petabyte-scale data challenges, machine learning, advanced visualizations, and interactive user interfaces – to name a few.

Trade Desk Software Engineers contribute to more than our product – they build up our team. Through a combination of mentoring, technical leadership, and/or direct management of small teams, they make others better and raise the bar for those around them.

Who We Are Looking For:

Skills and Experience

7+ years of demonstrated success in software development within high-scale enterprise environments.
Hands-on experience with multiple platforms and technologies, including: PyTorch, Tensorflow, Spark, .NET Core, Java, SQL Server, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, Azure
Excellent understanding of Agile development methodology and development practices
Understanding of designing Service-Oriented systems.
Exposure to Machine Learning concepts and frameworks (a plus, but not required).
Experience in building distributed systems and microservices.

Key Attributes

You have a sustained track record of making significant, self-directed, and end-to-end contributions to large and impactful software projects. You think beyond just the task at hand to deeply understand the 'why' behind what you are doing.
You understand engineering fundamentals. At our scale, many off-the-shelf techniques and existing technologies (open source and enterprise) simply don't work. You are able to work from first principles to evaluate solutions and adapt them to a unique environment.
You are a broadly skilled engineer, accustomed to developing web services. You have experience building always-on systems, working across a variety of technologies and service layers.
You have a product-focused mindset. You have the passion and ability to contribute to the process of discovering what will delight our clients and push forward one of the world’s largest and most influential industries toward a vision of openness, transparency, and evidence-based decision-making.
You work with confidence and without ego. Our engineers have deep knowledge and exercise a high degree of leadership in their daily work. You have strongly-held, defensible ideas, and advocate for what you believe is right. You are also adept at identifying and evaluating trade-offs, willing to be proven wrong, and quick to walk through fire to support your fellow teammates.
You value, seek out, and foster diversity. We are a global team from many diverse backgrounds, with different experiences and perspectives. To complement this team, you will welcome ideas that are different from your own and be skilled at finding and building from common ground.
You are a creative thinker, not bound by "the way things have always been done". What you know is less important than how well you learn and innovate. We don't need engineers who know all the answers; we need engineers who can invent the answers no one has thought of yet, to the questions yet to be asked.
The position will be located in Boulder, CO and we do require Engineers to work under a hybrid office work attendance.

Variety of technical opportunity is one of the best things about working at The Trade Desk as a software engineer which is why we do not expect you to know every technology we use when you start. What we care about is that you can learn quickly and find solutions to complex problems using the optimum tools for the job. What you know is less important than how well you learn and innovate. We don't need engineers who know all the answers; we need engineers who can invent the answers no one has thought of yet, to the questions yet to be asked.

The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk. The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.

#LI-AD

In accordance with various US state laws, 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, 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 variable compensation-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

$103,200—$189,200 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.