The Role
As a Senior Software Engineer, you will own the design, delivery, and reliability of the systems powering our next-generation, pixel-less ad targeting platform. You’ll translate complex requirements into scalable systems, navigating ambiguity and making the critical tradeoffs necessary to drive system performance and engineering effectiveness.
In this role, you’ll own the design and delivery of backend solutions that support ContextGPT integrations, helping the platform scale across new partners, supply sources, and capabilities. You’ll work closely with other engineers and cross-functional partners to solve complex technical problems, make thoughtful tradeoffs, and deliver reliable solutions that support product and business growth.
This position will be located in Bellevue with a hybrid work schedule of 3 days in office (Mon/Tue/Wed) and 2 days remote optional (Thursday/Friday).
Your Impact
In this role, success is measured by the reliability, scalability, and performance of our platform. You will:
- Lead Technical Design: Own the end-to-end design and delivery of .NET Core backend services and APIs that power ContextGPT, proactively accounting for scalability, performance, failure modes, and security as the platform grows across the ad-tech ecosystem.
- Elevate Reliability: Identify bottlenecks and improve system observability (metrics, logging, monitoring). You will lead blameless post-mortems and implement long-term systemic fixes to prevent incident recurrence.
- Drive Engineering Excellence: Strengthen the team through high-quality code reviews, technical mentorship, and the creation of exemplary technical artifacts (design docs, diagrams).
- Navigate Ambiguity: Exercise strong judgment to resolve unknowns and balance long-term system health with rapid development velocity.
- Collaborate on Direction: Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to align technical solutions with business priorities and roadmap requirements.
Required Experience & Capabilities
- Ownership, Drive & Agency: You identify systemic problems, create solutions without waiting for direction, and drive execution through influence rather than authority.
- System Design: Proven track record of designing, decomposing, and delivering high-scale production services or distributed systems.
- Technical Proficiency: Strong programming skills in .NET Core or another strongly typed backend language such as Java or Kotlin, with experience building APIs, services, or data pipelines.
- Operational Mindset: Deep understanding of system reliability, observability, and "up-front" design for maintainability.
- Curiosity: You’re naturally curious and eager to understand how things work. You ask thoughtful questions, dig into unfamiliar systems and problems, and look beyond the immediate task to identify root causes and opportunities for improvement.
- Communication: Clear ability to explain technical tradeoffs and decisions.
Bonus Points If You Have:
- Experience designing large-scale distributed systems serving high-throughput production workloads
- Deep experience building platform services or developer infrastructure used across multiple engineering teams
- AdTech or programmatic advertising experience
- Experience leading major partner integrations or platform expansion initiatives
- Startup or high-growth company experience
- Expertise with CI/CD, infrastructure automation, and engineering productivity tooling
- Hands-on experience with .NET Core, AWS, RDS, ClickHouse, Datadog, or similar technologies
Salary: $160,000 - $210,000 USD + Equity
- Medical, Dental and Vision plan for US employees & Extended Health Benefits for Canadian employees
- 12 weeks paid parental leave + 4 weeks WFH
- Unlimited PTO + Work-From-Anywhere August
- Career development with clear advancement paths
- Equity for all employees
- Hybrid work model & daily team lunch
- Health & wellness stipend + cell phone reimbursement
- 401(k) & RRSP with employer match
- Parking (CA, WA, Vancouver offices) & pre-tax commuter benefits
- Employee Assistance Program
- Comprehensive onboarding (Cognitiv University)
- …and more!
- Festiv – We make work fun with cross-team games, events, and creative team bonding.
- Responsiv – You’ll be close to clients and leadership, influencing real outcomes.
- Inclusiv – Diversity and individuality are celebrated across all levels.
- Inventiv – We reward curiosity and embrace bold ideas.
- Transformativ – We support your growth with training, mentorship, and flexibility.
- Collaborativ – We operate across coasts, connected by purpose and teamwork.
Skills Required
- Proven experience designing, decomposing, and delivering high-scale production services or distributed systems.
- Strong programming skills in .NET Core or another strongly typed backend language such as Java or Kotlin.
- Experience building APIs, services, or data pipelines.
- Deep understanding of system reliability, observability, and maintainable system design.
- Ability to identify systemic problems, create solutions independently, and drive execution through influence.
- Ability to clearly explain technical tradeoffs and decisions.
- Experience designing large-scale distributed systems serving high-throughput production workloads.
- Experience building platform services or developer infrastructure used across multiple engineering teams.
- AdTech or programmatic advertising experience.
- Experience leading major partner integrations or platform expansion initiatives.
- Startup or high-growth company experience.
- Expertise with CI/CD, infrastructure automation, and engineering productivity tooling.
- Hands-on experience with .NET Core, AWS, RDS, ClickHouse, Datadog, or similar technologies.
What We Do
Cognitiv is a deep learning advertising company redefining how brands connect with consumers. Since 2015, we have built a custom AI platform that predicts consumer behavior in real time and drives performance at scale. Advertisers can activate through their preferred DSP, our managed service DSP, or our industry-first ContextGPT product. By combining advanced data science with flexible activation, we deliver precision, relevance, and measurable impact across channels.
Why Work With Us
At Cognitiv, you will work on real-world AI that directly shapes media performance. We are profitable, growing, and deeply technical, with close access to leadership and clients. We value curiosity, collaboration, and ownership, and we invest in your growth through equity, flexibility, and clear career paths.
