Distributed Systems Engineer 5 - Ads Creative Infrastructure

At Netflix, our mission is to entertain the world. Together, we are writing the next episode - pushing the boundaries of storytelling, global fandom and making the unimaginable a reality. We are a dream team obsessed with the uncomfortable excitement of discovering what happens when you merge creativity, intuition and cutting-edge technology. Come be a part of what’s next.

In April 2022, we introduced a new, more affordable, ad-supported tier for our customers, marking a significant milestone for Netflix. Our focus is now on expanding choices for consumers and providing advertisers with a premium TV brand experience that surpasses traditional linear formats. The challenge ahead involves scaling our ad tech to maximize its impact on our business.

Our Team

The Ads Platform Engineering teams build advertising systems and integrations that power the delivery of ads using our world-class content delivery ecosystem. We use a number of Netflix investments and innovations to power our ads - unique mix of client and server-side ad insertions, state of the art content delivery system, ad encoding recipes, content understanding and metadata. We deliver ads in a manner that’s thoughtful of our member’s viewing experience and drive great outcomes for advertisers. We also ensure that advertiser brand safety is ensured during serving, members only see the most appropriate ads for them.

The Creatives Team is building the robust, scalable backbone that powers all creative workflows across the Netflix Ads platform. The ability to scale how quickly advertisers are able to bring their creatives, get them processed, reviewed and deployed to reach the right member on our platform is crucial for our success.  This team will build out our creative infrastructure that works across our broadening supply sources (SVOD, Live and FTAB), enables scalability and sophistication (leveraging the best in class ML / genAI algorithms) and manages effective distribution for ad decisioning and serving even as we bring in more cardinality and flexibility of units that span a large variety of devices. 

This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a rapidly evolving space, enabling autonomy in the CTV marketplace.  If you're passionate about high-impact work, cutting-edge ad tech, and contributing to a global product, we invite you to help us define the next era of advertising at Netflix.

Skills & experience we’re seeking:

• Deep Expertise in Distributed Systems: Demonstrated experience designing, building, and maintaining highly available, fault-tolerant, and scalable distributed systems. This includes a strong understanding of concurrency, parallel processing, and microservices architecture.

• Fluency in at least one core Programming Languages - Java, Python or Go with a history of writing production-quality, well-tested code.

• Operational Excellence and Observability: Experience with setting up and maintaining comprehensive monitoring, logging, tracing, and alerting systems (e.g., using tools like Spinnaker, Prometheus, Grafana, or proprietary solutions) to ensure system reliability and quick diagnosis of issues.

• Proven Problem-Solving Capability: The ability to tackle complex, ambiguous technical problems and develop pragmatic, long-term solutions.

• Strong Collaboration and Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. A history of successfully collaborating with cross-functional teams (e.g., Product Management, Design, and other Engineering teams) is necessary.

• Ownership and Drive: A proactive mindset and a strong sense of ownership over the entire software development lifecycle, from initial design through deployment, operations, and eventual deprecation.

Nice to Haves:

• Experience in the Ads Domain: prior experience building or operating infrastructure specifically for digital advertising, including creative management, ad serving, or campaign optimization platforms, is a significant advantage.

• Experience with creative lifecycle management and pipeline development.

• Experience with machine learning applications in advertising, particularly in ad review systems.

• Experience building large-scale infrastructure for real-time, low-latency online advertising environments.

• Knowledge of the CTV space and its unique constraints.

Generally, our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $388,000.00 - $619,000.00.

Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs. Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more details about our Benefits here.

Netflix is a unique culture and environment. Learn more here.

Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.