Senior Software Engineer - Ad-Tech / DSP

This module will integrate into the client’s existing, already-live platform. You’ll join a small, dedicated team - 1 Project Manager and 4 Developers - reporting to the VP of Technology, and working closely with the company’s existing platform engineering team. Speed to market is the top priority, and we’re looking for developers who’ve built this kind of thing before and can hit the ground running., * Build core functionality for the Meta DSP module from the ground up, integrating with the client’s existing platform.

• Design and implement integrations with major programmatic networks and third-party APIs (including Meta, The Trade Desk, Amazon Ads, Google DV360, Beeswax, StackAdapt, Basis, Yahoo, and more).
• Work with high-volume data - real-time bid streams, campaign performance data, reporting pipelines - and help design data structures that scale.
• Collaborate closely with the PM and fellow developers in a small-team, fast-iteration environment.
• Coordinate with the existing platform engineering team to ensure the Meta DSP module integrates cleanly and doesn’t duplicate existing capabilities.
• Bring forward practical, engineering-driven recommendations on which existing platform technology to reuse versus where new technology better fits the module’s needs., We are intentionally not naming a specific stack for this role - the right technology choice depends on the problem, and we want engineers who can make that call, not ones locked into one toolset. That said, building a Meta DSP module well requires real depth in a few areas, regardless of the languages or frameworks involved, * Real Ownership: Small team, high-impact product - your work directly shapes a flagship new product line, not a fraction of a large team’s backlog.
• Built on a Proven Foundation: You’re integrating into an established, in-market platform, not fighting infrastructure fires from day one.
• Work With Peers Who’ve Done This Before: Join a team built around people who’ve shipped in ad-tech and programmatic advertising, not generalists learning the space for the first time.
• Direct Path to Impact: Report into a focused Meta DSP team with a direct line to the VP of Technology and executive leadership.

• Prior hands-on experience at a recognized ad-tech, DSP, or programmatic advertising company - this is a strong signal for this role. Candidates coming from backgrounds such as The Trade Desk, StackAdapt, Basis, Amazon Ads, Google DV360, Beeswax, Viant, Yahoo, Xandr, MediaMath, Mediaocean, Innovid, Compulse, MadHive, AdCellerent, Frequence, BRKThru, or FullThrottle are especially encouraged to apply.
• Deep, hands-on experience with REST API design, integration, and consumption - this role involves frequent connections to third-party ad exchanges and platforms.
• Strong experience with big data / data analytics or large-scale database design - comfortable working with high-volume data such as bid streams, campaign reporting, or real-time analytics, regardless of specific vendor or stack.
• Solid modern software engineering fundamentals - scalability, maintainability, automated testing, CI/CD - that translate across technology choices. This role is intentionally technology-agnostic; we care more about engineering judgment than a specific language or framework on your resume.
• Comfortable working in a small, high-accountability team where speed to market matters and priorities are clear.
• 2-3+ years of professional software development experience (open to a range of levels depending on the specific candidate’s ad-tech background and depth)., * SOLID development principles: Clean, maintainable, well-architected code that a small team can extend quickly without accumulating technical debt. This isn’t academic - in a fast-moving build like this, poor separation of concerns and tight coupling will slow the team down fast.
• Strong REST API skills: Real fluency in designing, consuming, and troubleshooting REST APIs - authentication schemes (OAuth2, API keys, tokens), rate limiting and quota management, pagination, retries and backoff, and handling inconsistent or poorly documented third-party APIs (common across ad exchanges).
• Large-data systems experience: Hands-on experience building systems that handle high-volume, high-velocity data - think real-time bid streams, campaign performance data, and reporting pipelines. This includes comfort with concepts like data partitioning, indexing and query performance at scale, and designing schemas or data models that hold up under volume.
• Real-time / low-latency processing: DSPs live and die by response time - experience with systems where milliseconds matter (real-time bidding, event-driven processing, caching strategies to avoid redundant lookups) is highly relevant.
• Concurrency & high-throughput design: Experience building systems that handle many simultaneous requests reliably - queuing, async processing, and horizontal scaling patterns.
• Observability & reliability: Practical experience with logging, monitoring, and alerting for production systems that can’t afford silent failures - a bad bid response or dropped data feed has real revenue impact.
• Third-party integration resilience: Experience building integrations that gracefully handle upstream outages, schema changes, or inconsistent data from partner APIs (very common in this space) without taking down the broader platform.

Candidates don’t need to check every box above with expert-level depth, but strength in most of these areas - ideally grounded in real ad-tech or programmatic advertising experience - is what will make someone effective on this team quickly.

StartupHakk has been engaged by one of our premier enterprise clients (a private equity-backed digital advertising powerhouse with over a decade of proven market leadership) to build out a focused engineering team for a new Meta DSP (Demand-Side Platform) module.