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.
Job Title: Staff Software Engineer
Location: 10770 NE 8th St., Suite 700, Bellevue, WA 98004
*Telecommuting permitted: work may be performed within normal commuting distance from The Trade Desk, Inc. office in Bellevue, WA.
Job Duties: Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend data pipelines for processing large-scale content catalog and metadata using distributed data processing frameworks such as Apache Spark. Develop and optimize high-throughput data processing workflows capable of ingesting, transforming, and aggregating large-scale datasets with optimal performance and reliability. Design and implement secure, scalable RESTful APIs to expose data services to internal platforms and downstream consumers. Architect and build data integration solutions that connect heterogeneous data sources and destinations across the platform, ensuring data consistency and availability. Collaborate with data scientists and machine learning engineers to integrate models and algorithms into production environments, including supporting feature engineering and model-serving pipelines. Implement monitoring, alerting, and observability frameworks for data pipelines to ensure reliability, performance, and high availability at scale. Optimize data storage and retrieval mechanisms, including data modeling, indexing strategies, and query performance tuning across relational databases, NoSQL stores, and cloud-based data warehouses. Contribute to architectural decisions for backend and data infrastructure, partner with cross-functional stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions, and apply data engineering best practices including data quality validation, error handling, and recovery mechanisms.
Salary: $206,086 - $302,200 / year
Job Requirements: Bachelor's degree (U.S. or foreign equivalent) in Information Technology, Computer Engineering or related field and five (5) years of experience in the job offered or related role. Must have three (3) years of experience with: software development in Python, Java, or Scala; building and deploying services on cloud platforms, including AWS, GCP, or Azure; and building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production. Must have two (2) years of experience with: designing and building data pipelines using distributed data processing frameworks, including Apache Spark; designing and implementing RESTful APIs and backend services; working with relational databases and NoSQL databases; and data modeling and query performance optimization for large-scale datasets.
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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
- Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or a related field
- Five years of experience in the job offered or a related role
- Three years of experience with software development in Python, Java, or Scala
- Three years of experience building and deploying services on cloud platforms, including AWS, GCP, or Azure
- Three years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production
- Two years of experience designing and building data pipelines using distributed data processing frameworks, including Apache Spark
- Two years of experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs and backend services
- Two years of experience working with relational and NoSQL databases
- Two years of experience with data modeling and query performance optimization for large-scale datasets
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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