WHO WE ARE
Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA) is the AI-Powered Marketing Cloud that leverages advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and trillions of consumer signals to make it easier for marketers to acquire, grow, and retain customers more efficiently. Through the Zeta Marketing Platform (ZMP), our vision is to make sophisticated marketing simple by unifying identity, intelligence, and omnichannel activation into a single platform – powered by one of the industry’s largest proprietary databases and AI. Our enterprise customers across multiple verticals are empowered to personalize experiences with consumers at an individual level across every channel, delivering better results for marketing programs. Zeta was founded in 2007 by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley and is headquartered in New York City with offices around the world. To learn more, go to www.zetaglobal.com.
Role Overview
Zeta Global is looking for a Lead Software Engineer to join Real-Time Events (RTE). This is a highly hands-on IC role. You will design, build, and operate the ZMP real-time events pipeline: ingesting, processing, and delivering high-volume event data that powers Zeta Marketing Platform products.
Key Responsibilities
- Technical Leadership: Design, implement, and launch event-pipeline features in production. Own architecture for the parts of the pipeline you lead.
- Thought Leadership & Innovation: Evaluate existing or emerging technologies where they offer a clear cost, latency, or operational advantage, and land those choices in production.
- Engineering Collaboration: Engage in architectural discussions, take ownership of key pipeline projects, and define stable contracts with downstream consumers.
- Team Mentorship: Mentor through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing. Help teammates ship via clear interfaces, solid tests, and production-ready patterns.
- Product Collaboration: Partner with Product, Data, and ZMP consumer teams to turn SLAs (latency, throughput, correctness) into working systems.
- Infrastructure & Reliability: Instrument services, improve alerting, and own on-call gaps yourself. Drive post-incident fixes (root cause, code, runbooks, dashboards) and keep the pipeline predictable under load.
Desired Qualifications and Expertise
- Extensive Experience: Minimum of 8–10 years in software engineering, including Lead/Staff-level work on event, streaming, or data-infrastructure systems.
- Technical Proficiency: Production experience with event streaming (Kafka or equivalent), Python services and APIs (e.g. FastAPI), and pipeline processing (Spark/EMR or equivalent) where needed.
- Cloud Expertise: Proficient in designing, deploying, and operating systems on AWS (S3, SQS/SNS, Lambda, RDS, and similar).
- Full Lifecycle Exposure: Experience with the complete software development lifecycle, from design through production, monitoring, and on-call.
- Programming Skills: Fluency in Python or substantial experience in Scala and Java.
- Database Proficiency: Skilled with data stores used around event pipelines (e.g. Postgres/MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB or similar).
- Scheduler Experience: Experience with orchestrators such as Apache Airflow.
- Operational Mindset: Track record owning high-throughput pipelines in production: incidents, performance and cost, observability, data quality, and SLOs.
- Communication Skills: Excellent interpersonal and communication abilities; can explain pipeline design and trade-offs to partners who consume ZMP event data.
BENEFITS & PERKS
- Unlimited PTO
- Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Employee Equity
- Employee Discounts, Virtual Wellness Classes, and Pet Insurance and more!!
SALARY RANGE
The salary range for this role is $200,000 - $210,000, depending on location and experience.
PEOPLE & CULTURE AT ZETA
Zeta considers applicants for employment without regard to, and does not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status as a veteran, or national or ethnic origin; nor does Zeta discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
We’re committed to building a workplace culture of trust and belonging, so everyone feels invited to bring their whole selves to work. We provide a forum for employees to celebrate, support and advocate for one another. Learn more about our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion here: https://zetaglobal.com/blog/a-look-into-zetas-ergs/
ZETA IN THE NEWS!
https://zetaglobal.com/press/?cat=press-releases
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Skills Required
- Minimum 8–10 years of software engineering experience, including Lead or Staff-level work on event, streaming, or data-infrastructure systems.
- Production experience with event-streaming technologies such as Kafka or equivalent.
- Experience building Python services and APIs, such as FastAPI.
- Experience with pipeline processing technologies such as Spark, EMR, or equivalent.
- Proficiency designing, deploying, and operating systems on AWS, including S3, SQS/SNS, Lambda, RDS, or similar services.
- Experience across the complete software development lifecycle, from design through production monitoring and on-call operations.
- Fluency in Python or substantial experience with Scala and Java.
- Database experience with event-pipeline data stores such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB, or similar.
- Experience with workflow orchestrators such as Apache Airflow.
- Track record owning high-throughput production pipelines, including incidents, performance, cost, observability, data quality, and SLOs.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including explaining pipeline designs and trade-offs to stakeholders.
What the Team is Saying
Zeta Global Compensation & Benefits Highlights
How does Zeta Global ensure its pay and bonus plans are competitive?
Zeta Global supports competitive compensation through a mix of base pay, equity, performance incentives, financial benefits and employee feedback-informed rewards. The company’s total rewards approach connects compensation with ownership, financial planning and benefits that support employees’ broader well-being.
- Competitive pay and incentives: Zeta lists competitive pay, equity, performance bonuses and an employee stock purchase plan as part of its compensation and total rewards offerings. Employees also describe compensation as a strength. A software engineer said Zeta offers “good compensation,” “best appraisals and pay raise” and a “supportive work environment,” while a director cited “compensation” as one of the strengths of the company.
- Equity and ownership: Zeta offers company equity and an employee stock purchase plan, giving employees ways to participate in the company’s growth. Its broader financial benefits also include a 401(k) with company match, monthly financial workshops, commuter benefits and insurance coverage, reinforcing compensation as part of a larger financial wellness package.
- Performance-oriented rewards: Employee reviews describe Zeta’s compensation as tied to performance and growth. One employee said, “Zeta pays well,” while another said compensation is “within industry range and revised every year.” A finance analyst cited “great incentives,” and a director described Zeta as a place to “shape your career” with room to move up. (Comparably; Glassdoor reviews; Indeed reviews)
- Benefits that strengthen total rewards: Zeta’s rewards package extends beyond pay through health, dental and vision insurance, mental health benefits, pet insurance, flexible time off, parental leave, adoption assistance, fertility and family-building support, travel assistance for reproductive health procedures, volunteer days and wellness resources. The company also says it uses wellness surveys and employee feedback to shape benefits updates, including expanded parental leave and adoption assistance.
- External signals:
- Compensation sentiment: Employees on external review sites describe Zeta’s compensation as “good,” “great” and competitive, with reviews citing pay raises, incentives, benefits and performance-based earning potential. (Glassdoor reviews; Indeed reviews; Comparably)
- Benefits signals: External profile data lists company equity, performance bonuses, an employee stock purchase plan and a home-office stipend for remote employees.
- Financial wellness: Zeta’s benefits include 401(k) matching, financial workshops, insurance coverage and employee stock purchase participation.
Bottom line: Zeta Global’s compensation approach combines competitive pay, performance incentives, equity, stock purchase access and broad benefits, giving employees both near-term rewards and longer-term financial participation in the company’s growth.
Zeta Global Insights
What We Do
Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA) is the AI Marketing Cloud that leverages advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and trillions of consumer signals to make it easier for marketers to acquire, grow, and retain customers more efficiently. Through the Zeta Marketing Platform (ZMP), our vision is to make sophisticated marketing simple by unifying identity, intelligence, and omnichannel activation into a single platform – powered by one of the industry’s largest proprietary databases and AI. Our enterprise customers across multiple verticals are empowered to personalize experiences with consumers at an individual level across every channel, delivering better results for marketing programs. Zeta was founded in 2007 by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley and is headquartered in New York City with offices around the world.
Why Work With Us
At Zeta, people have the freedom to think creatively, take initiative, and grow. We value curiosity, innovation, and teamwork, empowering everyone to use AI and technology in smarter ways to drive impact for clients, consumers, and each other while shaping the future together.
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Zeta Global Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
