Senior Software Engineer (Real-Time Ad Serving)
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- As a Senior Software Engineer on the LiveIntent Real-Time Ad Serving team, you will design, develop, and own the business logic that powers programmatic advertising at scale — ad selection, targeting, frequency capping, budget pacing, and delivery optimization
- The real-time platform is built on C++ and Lua: C++ provides the high-performance server framework, while Lua implements the business logic layer
- You will work primarily in Lua, developing and evolving the features that directly serve LiveIntent’s product — ensuring advertisers get the best outcomes and publishers maximize their revenue
- While we’re open to candidates with experience in any backend language, a willingness to work with Lua is essential — we provide time and the right environment to get up to speed
- You will collaborate closely with Product, working on features that directly impact LiveIntent’s customers — from ad targeting and delivery to reporting and optimization
- This is a hands-on engineering role where your code runs in production handling billions of daily transactions
- Develop and optimize business logic in Lua for ad selection, targeting, frequency capping, and budget pacing
- Design, build, and maintain real-time services processing 200K+ requests per second with strict latency requirements
- Work closely with Product to deliver features that meet advertiser and publisher needs
- Ensure code quality through code reviews, automated testing, and continuous integration
- Participate in architecture discussions and influence the technical roadmap
- Participate in on-call rotation to support production systems
- Experience building and operating distributed systems in production
- 5+ years of software engineering experience in backend development
- Experience with OpenRTB protocol and ad exchange integrations is a plus
- Experience in online advertising / ad tech (RTB, programmatic, DSP/SSP) is a plus
- Proficiency in a systems-level language (C++, Go, Rust, or Java) is a plus
- Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS) at scale is a plus
- Exposure to the full software development lifecycle — from design to production and monitoring
- Strong commitment to code quality, automated testing, and documentation
- Proficient English (the interview process will be held in English)
- Experience with Lua or willingness to learn (we provide time and the right environment)
- Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, performance optimization
- Experience with MongoDB and real-time data processing is a plus
- Experience with AI-assisted development tools and agentic workflows is a plus