Lead Software Engineer- Reston, VA- FreeWheel

FreeWheel, a Comcast company, provides comprehensive ad platforms for publishers, advertisers, and media buyers. Powered by premium video content, robust data, and advanced technology, we're making it easier for buyers and sellers to transact across all screens, data types, and sales channels. As a global company, we have offices in nine countries and can insert advertisements around the world.
Job Summary
The Tech Lead for Buyer Cloud User Data will provide technical leadership for the platforms and services that manage audience, taxonomy, metadata, and identity data across Buyer Cloud. This role will lead architecture and design, guide engineering execution, and ensure the scalability, reliability, quality, and cost efficiency of User Data platforms and services. Partners with Engineering, Product, Revenue Science, Product-Marketing, Partnership, and Privacy teams to ensure User data components and services enable accurate, responsive, feature-rich, privacy-compliant (application-level) functionality. Provides leadership and direction across multiple functional areas and maintains fiduciary responsibility for budgets while maximizing the value of enterprise identity data assets.
Job Description
Core Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership for Buyer Cloud User Data platforms and services.

• Lead the architecture and design of scalable systems that manage audience, taxonomy, metadata, and identity data.

• Lead complex engineering initiatives from technical discovery and design through implementation, rollout, and production support.

• Translate product and business requirements into technical designs, implementation plans, and measurable deliverables.

• Partner with the Buyer Cloud leadership team to align engineering priorities with business and product objectives.

• Collaborate with Product, Audience Manager, Identity, Privacy, and other partner teams to deliver effective end-to-end solutions.

• Guide the design and development of distributed data-processing systems, APIs, microservices, and cloud infrastructure.

• Drive engineering best practices for architecture, coding, testing, CI/CD, observability, release governance, and production readiness.

• Identify and address scalability, reliability, performance, data quality, and cloud cost challenges.

• Improve platform simplicity, maintainability, operational efficiency, and fault tolerance.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to software and data engineers.

• Facilitate design reviews and help the engineering team make pragmatic, well-informed technical decisions.

• Evaluate technical tradeoffs and clearly communicate recommendations, risks, dependencies, and delivery status to engineering leaders and stakeholders.

• Support the resolution of complex production issues and drive root-cause analysis and long-term remediation.

• Balance new product requirements with platform modernization, operational improvements, and technical debt reduction.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, or developing large-scale data platforms.

• Experience serving as a Tech Lead, Principal Engineer, Lead Engineer, or in a similar technical leadership role.

• Strong programming experience with Python.

• Strong SQL skills and experience working with large and complex datasets.

• Experience designing microservices, APIs, distributed systems, and data-processing platforms.

• Experience with AWS cloud infrastructure.

• Production experience with Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD technologies.

• Proven ability to lead architecture and design discussions and influence technical decisions across multiple teams.

• Strong understanding of system scalability, performance, reliability, fault tolerance, and operational support.

• Experience leading technically complex projects from design through production deployment.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical decisions and tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and improve engineering practices.

• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic, and ambiguous environment.

• Ability to deliver results while maintaining high standards for engineering quality and operational health.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Snowflake or EKS or Aerospike experience

• Experience in ad tech, media, or data-intensive platforms

• Familiarity with both batch and streaming ingestion pattern

• Background in performance monitoring, observability, and cost optimization in cloud environments

Employees at all levels are expected to:

• Understand our Operating Principles; make them the guidelines for how you do your job.
• Own the customer experience think and act in ways that put our customers first, give them seamless digital options at every touchpoint, and make them promoters of our products and services.
• Know your stuff be enthusiastic learners, users and advocates of our game-changing technology, products and services, especially our digital tools and experiences.
• Win as a team make big things happen by working together and being open to new ideas.
• Be an active part of the Net Promoter System a way of working that brings more employee and customer feedback into the company by joining huddles, making call backs and helping us elevate opportunities to do better for our customers.
• Drive results and growth.
• Support a culture of inclusion in how you work and lead.
• Do what's right for each other, our customers, investors and our communities.

Disclaimer: This information has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees in this role. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications.
Comcast is an equal opportunity workplace. We will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.
Skills:
Distributed Systems; Collaboration; Structured Query Language (SQL); Back-End Development; Design; Python (Programming Language); Project Leadership
Salary:
Virginia Pay Range: $167,383.91 - $251,075.87
Comcast intends to offer the selected candidate base pay within this range, dependent on job-related, non-discriminatory factors such as experience. The application window is 30 days from the date job is posted, unless the number of applicants requires it to close sooner or later.
Base pay is one part of the Total Rewards that Comcast provides to compensate and recognize employees for their work. Most sales positions are eligible for a Commission under the terms of an applicable plan, while most non-sales positions are eligible for a Bonus. Additionally, Comcast provides best-in-class Benefits to eligible employees. We believe that benefits should connect you to the support you need when it matters most, and should help you care for those who matter most. That's why we provide an array of options, expert guidance and always-on tools, that are personalized to meet the needs of your reality - to help support you physically, financially and emotionally through the big milestones and in your everyday life. Please visit the compensation and benefits summary on our careers site for more details.
Education
Bachelor's Degree
While possessing the stated degree is preferred, Comcast also may consider applicants who hold some combination of coursework and experience, or who have extensive related professional experience.
Relevant Work Experience
10 Years +