About Moloco:
Moloco builds some of the most powerful AI advertising solutions in the world. Our name—short for "machine learning company"—reflects our core mission: democratizing access to the advanced AI that has historically been reserved for tech giants. Led by machine learning pioneers who built some of the most successful ad systems at Google, including YouTube's monetization engine and key search advertising technologies, we're transforming how businesses grow and compete in the digital economy.
Built with AI from day one, Moloco’s planet-scale machine learning platform powers a suite of solutions for advertising growth and monetization. Moloco Ads is an AI-powered platform that delivers real business outcomes for mobile app marketers through performance-based user acquisition. Moloco Commerce Media enables retailers and marketplaces to build revenue-generating ad businesses that balance user experience and advertiser performance.
Moloco is headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Beijing, Singapore, Gurgaon, Tokyo, Shanghai, London, Tel Aviv, and Berlin.
Moloco is a truly rewarding place to work and in an exciting period of growth, which you could be a part of. Join us today and apply now!
As a Staff Software Engineer at Moloco, you will help build the systems and products that power intelligent advertising and machine learning solutions for customers around the world. You will work on complex, large-scale problems at the intersection of software engineering, data, machine learning, and product development, turning them into reliable and intuitive solutions for customers and internal partners.
This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who combines strong technical depth with broad organizational impact. You will contribute to technical direction, lead critical initiatives from concept to production, and partner with teams across Moloco to deliver products and platforms that are scalable, measurable, and trusted by our customers.
Here’s what you’ll be working on:- Set technical direction for key product and platform initiatives, influencing architecture, engineering standards, and long-term technical strategy.
- Lead complex, cross-functional projects from problem framing and requirements definition through technical design, implementation, launch, and post-launch improvement.
- Design, implement, and operate scalable backend services, APIs, data systems, and workflows that support Moloco’s products and customer experiences.
- Translate ambiguous business and customer problems into clear technical solutions, balancing product impact, engineering quality, delivery timelines, and operational cost.
- Partner closely with Product, Data, ML, UX, and other Engineering teams to define scope, align stakeholders, and make effective technical and product trade-offs.
- Build and improve systems that help customers manage, deliver, measure, and optimize their business outcomes.
- Improve system reliability, performance, scalability, and observability through strong engineering practices, including testing, metrics, logging, monitoring, incident response, and operational reviews.
- Raise the engineering bar across the organization by driving design reviews, sharing best practices, and promoting thoughtful approaches to maintainability and technical excellence.
- Mentor and support engineers across levels, helping them grow their technical judgment, project ownership, and ability to operate effectively in a global engineering organization.
- Represent the team in broader technical discussions and help align near-term execution with Moloco’s longer-term product and engineering goals.
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 15+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience building and operating backend systems, platforms, or user-facing products at scale.
- Strong proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as Java, Go, Kotlin, C++, or Python.
- Deep understanding of distributed systems, service-oriented architecture, data structures, algorithms, and system design.
- Proven experience designing and operating reliable, high-throughput services and APIs in production environments.
- Experience working with relational or NoSQL databases and large-scale data systems, such as BigQuery, Bigtable, MySQL, or PostgreSQL.
- Track record of leading complex technical initiatives that span multiple components, teams, or disciplines, including aligning stakeholders and delivering high-quality results.
- Demonstrated ability to make sound technical decisions in ambiguous situations and clearly communicate the rationale, trade-offs, and expected impact.
- Experience collaborating closely with Product, Data, ML, UX, and Engineering partners to shape product direction and execution plans.
- Strong ownership mindset, with experience driving projects end-to-end and remaining engaged through launch, operation, and continuous improvement.
- Experience mentoring engineers and influencing engineering practices, team culture, or technical strategy beyond your immediate area.
- Fluent verbal and written communication skills in English, with the ability to lead technical discussions with global and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Experience building products or platforms in digital advertising, machine learning, media, e-commerce, fintech, or other data-intensive domains.
- Experience with large-scale distributed systems, real-time or near-real-time processing, high-volume data pipelines, or latency-sensitive services.
- Familiarity with cloud platforms and big-data technologies such as GCP, BigQuery, Dataflow, Kafka, Beam, or Spark.
- Experience integrating data pipelines, schemas, data contracts, analytics, and reporting capabilities into customer-facing products.
- Experience defining or improving reliability practices, including SLIs/SLOs, capacity planning, backfill strategies, cost management, and incident response.
- Ability to simplify complex technical or operational concepts into clear product experiences, APIs, and workflows.
- Experience working in a global or multi-region environment, especially where customer needs, market dynamics, or regulations differ by region.
- Demonstrated success influencing technical direction across organizational boundaries without relying on formal authority.
- Experience building inclusive, collaborative teams and helping engineers develop their technical and leadership capabilities.
Moloco Thrive: Benefits and Well-Being:
We take care of you and create the conditions for you to do the best work of your career. Through a lens of inclusion, we offer innovative benefits that empower our employees to take care of themselves and their families so they can do the best work of their lives.
Moloco Values:
- Lead with Humility: Everyone’s voice is respected, valued, and heard. With humility, we become more open and accessible to each other. We win, lose, and learn together. Accountability and feedback are essential to our success.
- Uncapped Growth Mindset: We see all situations as opportunities to learn, grow, and improve as individuals and as an organization. We seek diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and promote experimentation to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
- Create Real Value: We pursue the most impactful opportunities with rigor and integrity. We take intelligent risks and make disciplined trade-offs to maintain deep focus. We help our customers win by delivering durable value.
- Go Further Together: We’re one team working towards one mission and vision. We collaborate proactively and inclusively, involving the right people at the right time and in the right way. We strive to create a more equitable workplace. We won’t let each other fail.
Additional Resources:
- Moloco Company Blog
- Moloco Leadership
- Moloco Newsroom
AI Use in Interviews
Our interview process is designed to get to know the real you. Unless a round specifically includes AI as part of what's being assessed, we ask that candidates engage without AI assistance. Please review our AI Use in Interviews Policy before your interview to understand what to expect. Failure to comply with this policy may impact your candidacy.
Candidate Privacy Notice:
Your privacy matters to us. By applying, you acknowledge that you’ve reviewed our Candidate Privacy Notice.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- 15+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience building and operating backend systems, platforms, or user-facing products at scale
- Strong proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as Java, Go, Kotlin, C++, or Python
- Deep understanding of distributed systems, service-oriented architecture, data structures, algorithms, and system design
- Experience designing and operating reliable, high-throughput services and APIs in production environments
- Experience with relational or NoSQL databases and large-scale data systems such as BigQuery, Bigtable, MySQL, or PostgreSQL
- Track record of leading complex technical initiatives spanning multiple components, teams, or disciplines
- Ability to make sound technical decisions in ambiguous situations and clearly communicate rationale, trade-offs, and expected impact
- Experience collaborating with Product, Data, ML, UX, and Engineering partners
- Experience driving projects end-to-end through launch, operation, and continuous improvement
- Experience mentoring engineers and influencing engineering practices, team culture, or technical strategy
- Fluent verbal and written English communication skills
- Experience with connected TV, streaming media, digital advertising, ad measurement, audience targeting, or related domains
- Understanding of campaign delivery, reach, frequency, attribution, measurement, reporting, optimization, and performance trade-offs
- Experience with large-scale distributed systems, real-time or near-real-time processing, high-volume data pipelines, or latency-sensitive services
- Familiarity with GCP, BigQuery, Dataflow, Kafka, Beam, or Spark
- Experience integrating data pipelines, schemas, data contracts, analytics, and reporting into customer-facing products
- Experience defining or improving reliability practices such as SLIs, SLOs, capacity planning, backfill strategies, cost management, and incident response
- Ability to simplify complex technical or operational concepts into clear product experiences, APIs, and workflows
- Experience working in a global or multi-region environment
- Success influencing technical direction across organizational boundaries without formal authority
- Experience building inclusive, collaborative teams and developing engineers' technical and leadership capabilities
What We Do
Moloco is a machine learning company empowering organizations of all sizes to grow and unlock the full value of their unique first-party data, elevating the traditional path to performance advertising. While the largest technology companies have proven the speed and scale of ad-targeting utilizing data— the same robust performance powered by machine learning has previously been unavailable beyond their platforms. That's where Moloco steps in. With Moloco's powerful combination of cutting-edge machine learning technologies, we play a unique and visible role in shaping the digital economy, all while allowing companies to stay independent and scale. An industry leader at the nexus of machine learning, performance marketing, and visionary product infrastructure, Moloco is advancing the advertising technology industry. We ranked in the top 10% in the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies for 2023. Recognized as one of 46 leading Cloud Computing companies, receiving the Stratus Award for 2023. In 2023, we received Google’s Cloud DevOps Dreamers Award, a recognition given to companies that are implementing DevOps practices to drive organizational success and high performance. Lastly, Moloco is a 2024 certified Great Place to Work! Check us out on Glassdoor and be sure to get an inside look at working at Moloco on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. Moloco is headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, London, Berlin, Seoul, Singapore, Beijing, Gurgaon, and Tokyo.
Why Work With Us
Moloco plays a unique and visible role in shaping the digital economy. We are a powerful combination of cutting-edge technologies and executive innovators who utilize machine learning to scale business models. At Moloco you’ll work alongside people who are world-class thought leaders and focused on using their superpowers to create real value.
