The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with nearly 4,000 employees across more than 30 offices. Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet — from streaming TV and podcasts to mobile apps, news, and more.
Advertising powers the content people love. By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. The world’s brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly.
The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges — from processing massive datasets in real time to building systems that operate reliably on a global scale. When you work here, your impact is worldwide. We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another. If you’re driven to solve meaningful challenges, we’d love to meet you.
About the Role
Our Senior Identity Engineers are end-to-end owners of the systems they build. You will design, build, and operate large-scale distributed systems and data products that process petabyte-scale data across cloud and physical infrastructure. You will collaborate closely with data scientists, platform engineers, and product teams to deliver reliable, high-performance systems that serve clients at global scale.
What We Build
At the core of our platform is a sophisticated identity infrastructure that powers how we understand and connect audiences at scale. We build systems that construct and maintain large-scale identity graphs — linking signals across devices, channels, and environments in a privacy-conscious way. We develop frameworks to continuously evaluate identity graph performance, measuring accuracy, coverage, and quality so our systems improve over time. This work sits at the intersection of data engineering, distributed systems, and data science/ML, and directly shapes how the open internet operates for advertisers and publishers worldwide.
Who We Are Looking For
- 7+ years of impactful work in Software Engineering, with experience in data-intensive or platform-oriented domains (experience in the Identity space is a plus)
- Track record of ownership — A sustained track record of significant, self-directed, end-to-end contributions to large and impactful data engineering projects. You think beyond the task at hand to deeply understand the why behind what you are doing.
- Distributed systems experience — Experience designing and building large-scale distributed systems across cloud and physical infrastructure, including always-on services across a variety of technologies and service layers.
- Big data & data-intensive systems — Hands-on experience with high-throughput pipelines processing billions of records, using technologies like Spark, ETL, or similar. You build systems that stay reliable and performant as data volumes grow.
- Development experience — Commercial development skills in Object-Oriented programming (Java, C# and SQL) and design.
- Platform & infrastructure breadth — Familiarity with technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, and web-based, service-oriented architectures.
- Product-focused mindset — The passion to discover what will delight clients and push one of the world's largest industries toward openness, transparency, and evidence-based decision-making.
- Collaboration and diversity — You value, seek out, and foster diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
We are a global team from many diverse backgrounds, with different experiences and perspectives. To complement this team, you will welcome ideas that are different from your own and be skilled at finding and building from common ground.
Variety of technical opportunity is one of the best things about working at The Trade Desk as a software engineer which is why we do not expect you to know every technology we use when you start. What we care about is that you can learn quickly and find solutions to complex problems using the optimum tools for the job. What you know is less important than how well you learn and innovate. We don't need engineers who know all the answers; we need engineers who can invent the answers no one has thought of yet, to the questions yet to be asked.
The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk. The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.
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In accordance with various US state laws, the range provided is the Trade Desk's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount may differ based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, and location. All employees may be eligible to become The Trade Desk shareholders through eligibility for stock-based compensation grants, which are awarded to employees based on company and individual performance. The Trade Desk also offers other compensation depending on the role such as variable compensation-based incentives and commissions. Plus, expected benefits for this role include comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) with premiums paid in full for employees and dependents, retirement benefits such as a 401k plan and company match, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, well-being benefits, reimbursement for certain tuition expenses, parental leave, sick time of 1 hour per 30 hours worked, vacation time for full-time employees up to 120 hours thru the first year and 160 hours thereafter, and around 13 paid holidays per year. Employees can also purchase The Trade Desk stock at a discount through The Trade Desk’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
The Trade Desk also offers a competitive benefits package. Click here to learn more.
Note: Interns are not eligible for variable incentive awards such as stock-based compensation, retirement plan, vacation, tuition reimbursement or parental leave
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Please reach out to us at accommodations@thetradedesk.com to request an accommodation or discuss any accessibility needs you may require to access our Company Website or navigate any part of the hiring process.
When you contact us, please include your preferred contact details and specify the nature of your accommodation request or questions. Any information you share will be handled confidentially and will not impact our hiring decisions.
Skills Required
- 7+ years in the Identity space or related domain
- Experience with large-scale distributed systems
- Hands-on experience with high-throughput data pipelines
- Development skills in Object-Oriented programming
- Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS
The Trade Desk Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about The Trade Desk and has not been reviewed or approved by The Trade Desk.
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Affordable Benefits — Healthcare premiums are often paid in full for employees and dependents, reducing out-of-pocket costs. Coverage includes medical, dental, and vision alongside mental health and wellness support.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Packages commonly include new-hire stock grants, a generous Employee Stock Purchase Plan, and equity refreshers tied to performance. Feedback suggests equity meaningfully boosts total compensation alongside base pay and bonuses.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO, paid holidays, paid sick time, and sabbaticals are available. Paid parental leave and extensive family-planning support broaden time-off and caregiving coverage.
The Trade Desk Insights
What We Do
The Trade Desk is changing the way global brands and their agencies advertise to audiences around the world. Our mission is to transform media for the benefit of humankind. Our media-buying platform helps brands deliver a more insightful and relevant ad experience for consumers — and sets a new standard for reach, accuracy, and transparency.
Why Work With Us
With up to 11 million queries per second and SLAs in the milliseconds, we’re tackling data and software challenges at massive scale. While we’re growing fast, investing in our value based company culture remains one of our top priorities. If you’re talented, driven, and hungry to bring something entirely new and wildly ambitious, let's talk.
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