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.
The Trade Desk is a global technology company with a mission to create a better, more open internet for everyone through principled, intelligent advertising. Handling over 1 trillion queries per day, our platform operates at an unprecedented scale. We have also built something even stronger and more valuable: an award-winning culture based on trust, ownership, empathy, and collaboration. We value the unique experiences and perspectives that each person brings to The Trade Desk, and we are committed to fostering inclusive spaces where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work every day.
Do you have a passion for solving hard problems at scale? Are you eager to join a dynamic, globally- connected team where your contributions will make a meaningful difference in building a better media ecosystem? Come and see why Fortune magazine consistently ranks The Trade Desk among the best small- to medium-sized workplaces globally.
The Team: Marketplace Quality Engineering:
Every second, our bidder evaluates millions of ad opportunities across thousands of publishers and supply paths. Not all of that supply is created equal — some of it is duplicated, some is structurally inaccessible, and some degrades advertiser outcomes. The Marketplace Quality Engineering team exists to make sure our platform is buying the right impressions, not just more impressions.
We own the systems that assess, measure, and optimize supply quality across the programmatic ecosystem. Our work spans deduplication, supply path analysis, quality modeling, and the tooling that turns those signals into decisions at bid time. The problems are technically deep — think identity resolution across fragmented supply chains, statistical modeling to separate signal from noise, and real-time decisioning at platform scale — and they have direct, measurable impact on both advertiser outcomes and platform economics.
This is not theoretical work. When we ship a model update, spend distribution across the platform shifts. Our engineering decisions translate directly into tens of millions of dollars of measurable business impact. If you want to build systems where what you ship visibly matters, this is the team.
You will work with C# / .NET as a core strength, alongside Python and SQL where data and automation need it, and partner closely with product, data, and platform teams across time zones.
Who you are:
Our culture runs deeper than having fun together (though we do that well, too). We take pride in our engineers being trust-builders, generous givers, scrappy problem solvers, and gritty pursuers of excellence. You do not need to meet every requirement below, but people who meet most of them tend to thrive in this role:
- You are comfortable working on an agile, distributed team across time zones and continents.
- You communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.
- You have a solid grasp of computer science and engineering fundamentals.
- You have strong experience with distributed systems and data-heavy backend work (services, pipelines, or both).
- You are proficient in C# / .NET.
- You are productive with modern development tools: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Rider, and Git.
- You bring 7+ years of software development or engineering experience.
Nice to have (not required): GraphQL or REST API design, large-scale data processing frameworks (e.g. Apache Spark), workflow orchestration tools (e.g. Apache Airflow), schema-based data serialization, Kubernetes, Kafka, database engines (Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Aerospike, Vertica, Redis), microservices, Python for data work or automation, and experience working across large codebases with multiple teams.
A wide range of technical opportunities is one of the best parts of engineering at The Trade Desk, which is why we do not expect you to know every technology we use on day one. What matters is that you learn quickly and solve complex problems with the right tools. What you know today matters less than how well you learn, adapt, and innovate. We are not looking for people who already have all the answers — we want engineers who can invent answers no one has thought of yet and frame the questions we have not yet asked.
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
- Proven experience building and scaling large distributed systems
- Strong architectural instincts for designing reliable and high-performance systems
- Experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-team initiatives
- Experience with real-time systems or platform development is a strong plus
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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