Director of Engineering, Realtime Advertising Systems

A bit about us GroundTruth is a media company that turns real-world behavior into marketing that delivers real business results. Using observed real-world consumer behavior, like location and purchase data, it creates targeted advertising campaigns across all screens for advertisers. GroundTruth then measures how consumers respond to the campaigns – including if they physically show up to a location or website – to understand the real business results generated by a brand's advertising. GroundTruth’s proprietary Location, Place, and Visitation data sets are accredited by the Media Ratings Council and trusted by thousands of brands and their agencies. Learn more at  GroundTruth.com . We believe that innovative technology starts with the best talent and have been ranked one of Ad Age’s Best Places to Work for three years in a row (2021, 2022 & 2023). Learn more about the perks of joining our team here. Director of Engineering, Realtime Advertising Systems Remote (North America) | Engineering About the advertising systems team The Advertising Serving systems group is responsible for developing and maintaining our real-time advertising serving systems including responding to bid-requests from SSPs and exchanges using Open RTB as well as delivering ads and processing event notifications from our inventory partners and rendered ad units. Our advertising platform currently receives ~700,000 transactions per second in bid volume on AWS infrastructure typically responding to external bid requests in under 30ms. This is a high-volume low-latency system and the team focuses on technical excellence in Java, Scala, and C++ using AWS infrastructure. We seek to continuously improve cost performance while bringing new features to market for our customers. Responsibilities of the role Be technical a hands-on leader working with the teams every day Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to design systems, plan projects, and ensure quality delivery within time and budget Control AWS costs and proactively identify and execute system improvements to reduce spend on infrastructure while increasing scale and reliability Grow, develop, and lead a winning team through effective performance management, hiring, and training, including regular 1:1 meetings with all of your direct and indirect reports Manage performance against key metrics for the engineering department such as productivity per headcount-dollar Required qualifications Education and professional experience: PHD or Masters degree in STEM with 10+ years experience in technology or 4-year degree in STEM with 12+ years experience in technology or 16+ years experience in technology The following skills/experience/certifications: advertising or marketing industry experience, AWS architecture and cost management, Java or Scala development, C++ programming, SQL proficiency, experience with distributed systems operating at internet scale Additional nice to have skills/certifications: Akka, Vert.x, Grizzly, Netty, NIO, Python, Apache Web Server, Nginx, Protocol Buffers, HAProxy, Aerospike, Redis, Kinesis, sed, awk, perl, real-time bidding, previous experience as a system architect or AWS certified solution architect certification Cultural fit at GroundTruth A team player who is organized, flexible and willing to adapt Not afraid of new technologies and driven to learn A detail-oriented person, who catches problems early and adjusts A strong communicator who is able to collaborate with multiple business and engineering stakeholders and work through conflicting needs A problem solver who likes to dive deep into a problem, diagnose root causes and work with multiple teams to come up with a solution Eager to provide direction and build consistent processes in a maturing start-up culture A self-starter who can operate with minimal supervision What we offer At GroundTruth, we want our employees to be comfortable with their benefits so they can focus on doing the work they love. Remote-first philosophy, subject to each manager’s discretion depending on the needs of the role Flexible vacation Daily lunch credit when working in-office Fully stocked snacks and beverages 401(k) employer match Fully-paid medical premiums for employees Generous parental leave Active DEIB Committee with regular initiatives Inclusion Academy seminars Wellness and gym reimbursement Family and pet expense reimbursement Education and coaching reimbursement program Option for mobile phone reimbursement or separate company phone Equity analysis to ensure fair pay The base pay offered may vary depending on geographic region, internal equity, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors.  Our compensation package also includes a comprehensive benefits platform offering and a company bonus. The salary range for this position is listed below. Salary Range $230,000 — $290,000 USD We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity, inclusion and equity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodations under applicable federal, state and/or local laws. If you need reasonable accommodations in the application process, please reach out to us at careers-gt@groundtruth.com.