Staff Software Engineer, Ads API

Reddit is a community of communities. It’s built on shared interests, passion, and trust, and is home to the most open and authentic conversations on the internet. Every day, Reddit users submit, vote, and comment on the topics they care most about. With 100,000+ active communities and approximately 121 million daily active unique visitors, Reddit is one of the internet’s largest sources of information. For more information, visit www.redditinc.com. Team Description The Ads API team is a growing group that is critically important to the future of Reddit's business. This team's ownership is both horizontal and vertical: we own the platform layer that other product teams use to surface their features, as well as the external-facing APIs that third-party partners rely on to manage campaigns and generate reports. We also own the core products used by external customers in their integration, such as rate limiting, authentication, and SDKs.  The Ads API team has a dual mandate. First, by providing world-class tools and infrastructure, we enable our partners to grow their business and, in turn, grow Reddit’s advertising ecosystem. Second, by providing an easy-to-use and safe internal platform, we enable other teams across Reddit to expose functionality they own as part of our standardized Ads API platform. Role Description Reporting to the Ads API Engineering Manager, the person in this role will be the primary technical driver and architect for the Ads API team. This is a high-agency position for an engineer who can navigate ambiguity and take decisive ownership of the platform's technical direction in collaboration with other engineers, teams, and stakeholders. It is best classified as the Tech Lead archetype of Staff Engineer, and the most successful candidates will have experience serving in this capacity previously. This role acts as both a technically adept deep coder and a force multiplier. It is responsible for working cross-functionally to help establish the long-term technical vision for the Ads API, ensuring our systems are highly available and capable of scaling with the marketplace. In this role you will lead large-scale projects through the entire software development lifecycle, from concept through implementation until delivery. You will also be the rising tide that raises all boats around you, serving as a technical leader and mentor to the Ads API team. What You’ll Do Steer: Work with the team to select, scope, and drive high-leverage projects that accelerate the development of the Ads API to help Reddit achieve its ambitious goals. Architect: Help define the 2+ year technical roadmap for the platform, translating complex business needs into a clear strategy for highly available and performant backend services. Build: Execute on a strategy to create a world-class developer experience for our external 3P partners, focusing on API design, versioning, security, discoverability, and usability. Amplify: Mentor, coach, and collaborate with other technical contributors, fostering a culture of empathetic technical excellence and proactive problem-solving. Collaborate: Work together with a variety of cross-functional teams, including Product Management, Product Marketing, and Sales, to ensure the Ads API meets the needs of all stakeholders. Evolve: Learn and improve technical and non-technical abilities, staying up-to-date on trends and best practices in the Ads API space across the industry. Qualifications Experience: 7+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of leading large-scale technical projects that require cross-team and cross-functional collaboration. Backend Expertise: Strong experience in large-scale distributed systems and developing highly scalable and reliable backend services. Technical Ability: Expertise in at least one general-purpose programming language (e.g., Go, Python, Scala, Java, or C++) and ability to grow expertise in Python and Go. Leadership: Demonstrated ability to disambiguate complex problems, align stakeholders with different priorities, and aggressively prioritize to execute effectively. Communication: Excellent communication skills employed to drive toward consensus, navigate disagreements, and influence decisions across the engineering organization. Agency: A bias for action. The ability to identify what needs to be done, take the initiative to make it happen without waiting for direction, and finish the swing. Preferred Qualifications Direct experience as a Tech Lead or in a similar function. Previous success as part of a Platform team with other engineering teams serving as customers.  Proven experience designing, building, and operating scalable, public-facing APIs. Experience with API gateways, authentication/authorization protocols, and rate limiting. Expertise in Python and/or Go. In select roles and locations, the interviews will be recorded, transcribed and summarized by artificial intelligence (AI). You will have the opportunity to opt out of recording, transcription and summarization prior to any scheduled interviews. During the interview, we will collect the following categories of personal information: Identifiers, Professional and Employment-Related Information, Sensory Information (audio/video recording), and any other categories of personal information you choose to share with us. We will use this information to evaluate your application for employment or an independent contractor role, as applicable.  We will not sell your personal information or disclose it to any third party for their marketing purposes.  We will delete any recording of your interview promptly after making a hiring decision.  For more information about how we will handle your personal information, including our retention of it, please refer to our Candidate Privacy Policy for Potential Employees and Contractors. Reddit is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to building a workforce representative of the diverse communities we serve.  Reddit is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If, due to a disability, you need an accommodation during the interview process, please let your recruiter know.