Staff Software Engineer, Ads API

About Reddit

Reddit is a community of communities built on shared interests, passion, and trust. It serves as one of the internet’s largest sources of information, with over 100,000 active communities and approximately 121 million daily active unique visitors. Users submit, vote, and comment on topics they care about, fostering open and authentic conversations.

Team Description: Ads API

The Ads API team is a growing and critical component of Reddit's business future. This team manages both a horizontal platform layer, used by internal product teams, and external-facing APIs, relied upon by third-party partners for campaign management and reporting. The team also owns core products vital for external customer integration, including rate limiting, authentication, and SDKs.

The Ads API team operates with a dual mandate:

• Enable partners to grow their businesses and expand Reddit’s advertising ecosystem by providing world-class tools and infrastructure.
• Facilitate other Reddit teams in exposing their functionality through a standardized, easy-to-use, and secure internal Ads API platform.

Role Overview: Staff Software Engineer, Ads API

Reporting to the Ads API Engineering Manager, the Staff Software Engineer, Ads API will serve as the primary technical driver and architect for the Ads API team. This high-agency position requires an engineer capable of navigating ambiguity and taking decisive ownership of the platform's technical direction, collaborating closely with engineers, teams, and stakeholders. This role aligns with the Tech Lead archetype of a Staff Engineer, and successful candidates will have prior experience in this capacity.

This role acts as both a technically adept deep coder and a force multiplier. Responsibilities include working cross-functionally to establish the long-term technical vision for the Ads API, ensuring systems are highly available and scalable for the marketplace. The Staff Software Engineer, Ads API will lead large-scale projects through the entire software development lifecycle, from concept to delivery, and will mentor the Ads API team, raising the overall technical bar.

What You'll Accomplish

• Steer: Collaborate with the team to select, scope, and drive high-leverage projects that accelerate Ads API development, contributing to Reddit’s ambitious goals.
• Architect: Help define the 2+ year technical roadmap for the platform, translating complex business needs into a clear strategy for highly available and performant backend services.
• Build: Execute a strategy to create a world-class developer experience for external 3P partners, focusing on API design, versioning, security, discoverability, and usability.
• Amplify: Mentor, coach, and collaborate with other technical contributors, fostering a culture of empathetic technical excellence and proactive problem-solving.
• Collaborate: Work with cross-functional teams, including Product Management, Product Marketing, and Sales, to ensure the Ads API meets stakeholder needs.
• Evolve: Continuously learn and improve technical and non-technical abilities, staying current with industry trends and best practices in the Ads API space.

Qualifications We Look For

• Experience: 7+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven track record of leading large-scale technical projects requiring cross-team and cross-functional collaboration.
• Backend Expertise: Strong experience in large-scale distributed systems and developing highly scalable and reliable backend services.
• Technical Ability: Expertise in at least one general-purpose programming language (e.g., Go, Python, Scala, Java, or C++) and the ability to grow expertise in Python and Go.
• Leadership: Demonstrated ability to disambiguate complex problems, align stakeholders with different priorities, and aggressively prioritize for effective execution.
• Communication: Excellent communication skills used to drive consensus, navigate disagreements, and influence decisions across the engineering organization.
• Agency: A bias for action; the ability to identify needs, take initiative without waiting for direction, and see projects through to completion.

Preferred Skills

• Direct experience as a Tech Lead or in a similar function.
• Previous success as part of a Platform team with other engineering teams serving as customers.
• Proven experience designing, building, and operating scalable, public-facing APIs.
• Experience with API gateways, authentication/authorization protocols, and rate limiting.
• Expertise in Python and/or Go.

Key Skills/Competency

• Distributed Systems
• API Design
• Backend Development
• Technical Leadership
• System Architecture
• Go/Python Programming
• Scalability Solutions
• Authentication/Authorization
• Rate Limiting
• Cross-functional Collaboration