Senior Software Engineer (C++), Real Time Systems
7 days ago
Seattle
Job DescriptionAre you ready to revolutionize the advertising industry? At Cognitiv, we are not just another AdTech company—we are industry trailblazers redefining media buying with our Deep Learning Advertising Platform. Since 2015, we have harnessed the power of cutting-edge deep learning technology and data science to transform how brands connect with their customers. Our mission? To bring intelligence to advertising and deliver unparalleled precision, relevance, and impact at scale. With our innovative platform, advertisers enjoy unprecedented flexibility—whether it is activating Dynamic Deals through their preferred DSP, leveraging our managed service DSP, or utilizing our industry-first ContextGPT product. As a part of Cognitiv, you will be at the forefront of AI-driven advertising solutions, driving change and achieving remarkable growth in a rapidly evolving industry.Now, we're growing!PRIMARY BUSINESS OBJECTIVE In this role, you will own the performance and reliability of Cognitiv's real-time bidding systems and be accountable for delivering measurable impact across latency, throughput, revenue capture, and system resiliency across a globally scaled platform. This is a high-ownership role requiring sound judgment, initiative, and consistent execution within a well-defined foundation, with meaningful opportunity to own and shape decisions as the business evolves. WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE You will be successful in this role if you: • Own outcomes end-to-end within your scope, from problem definition through delivery and results, • Exercise strong judgment when tradeoffs exist, using available data, context, and clear principles, • Prioritize impact, speed, and quality while maintaining a high bar for rigor and execution, • Build trust through clarity, accountability, and follow-through Outcome 1: Independent Ownership & Execution Outcome 2: Identity Performance & Coverage Outcome 3: Reliable & Scalable Platform Impact • Build deep understanding of the RTS platform (Draco, routing, identity, event flow), latency budgets, and revenue impact of bidding decisions., • Establish strong working relationships with engineering teammates and cross-functional partners (Product, Data Science, Core & Infra)., • Identify key risks, performance bottlenecks, reliability gaps, and identity-related constraints within owned systems. By 60 Days • Independently own a defined subsystem, feature, or performance/reliability improvement within the bidding or identity path., • Deliver at least one meaningful improvement (performance, reliability, debuggability, or operational safety) verified through metrics or incident reduction., • Confidently debug production issues with limited guidance. By 90 Days • Fully own outcomes for a core service or domain area within RTS., • Deliver consistent, high-quality execution aligned with strict <50ms latency and reliability standards without requiring close review for correctness., • Proactively identify risks and implement improvements before customer or revenue impact. Transition to Full Ownership The first 90 days are designed to move you from context-building and guided execution into a fully independent, high-impact engineer within the real-time bidding platform. By the end of this period, you are no longer ramping — you are a reliable owner operating confidently in the hot path of revenue-critical systems. By the end of this period, you are expected to: • Operate with minimal day-to-day guidance while staying aligned with goals and priorities, • Own decisions and outcomes within your scope end-to-end, • Proactively identify risks, opportunities, and improvements, • Be recognized by peers and partners as a reliable owner and decision-maker, • Driving measurable improvements in real-time bidding latency, stability, and auction success rates, • Making decisions that balance speed, quality, and long-term impact, • Partnering with Product, Data Science, Core and Infrastructure teams to remove blockers and deliver outcomes, • Outcomes delivered, consistency of execution, and ability to sustain impact under production load, • Ability to operate independently and unblock work, • Judgment in prioritizing tradeoffs, navigating complexity, and making high-quality decisions as scope and responsibility grow, • Impact on team and business results (performance metrics, reliability metrics, and revenue-impacting improvements), • Demonstrated experience building and operating high-scale, low-latency distributed systems (ideally sub-100ms request/response systems) with measurable impact on performance, reliability, or efficiency., • Strong ownership mindset, taking services from design through production operation, on-call support, and long-term maintenance., • Ability to operate effectively in fast-moving, high-scale environments, improving and evolving existing systems without sacrificing reliability., • Clear communication skills, able to explain complex system behavior and tradeoffs to both technical and cross-functional stakeholders., • Experience in AdTech, RTB, exchanges, fintech, trading systems, search, or other high-QPS real-time platforms., • Prior ownership of mission-critical systems with strict latency SLAs., • Medical, dental & vision coverage (some plans 100% employer-paid), • 12 weeks paid parental leave + 4 weeks WFH, • Unlimited PTO + Work-From-Anywhere August, • Career development with clear advancement paths, • Equity for all employees, • Hybrid work model & daily team lunch, • Health & wellness stipend + cell phone reimbursement, • 401(k) with employer match, • Parking (CA & WA offices) & pre-tax commuter benefits, • Employee Assistance Program, • Comprehensive onboarding (Cognitiv University), • …and more!What You'll Find at Cognitiv, • Festiv – We make work fun with cross-team games, events, and creative team bonding., • Responsiv – You'll be close to clients and leadership, influencing real outcomes., • Inclusiv – Diversity and individuality are celebrated across all levels., • Inventiv – We reward curiosity and embrace bold ideas., • Transformativ – We support your growth with training, mentorship, and flexibility., • Collaborativ – We operate across coasts, connected by purpose and teamwork.Cognitiv is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for all.