The Trade Desk

The Trade Desk

Sr Software Engineer - Backend API Platform

Seattle · Senior · Full-time

Sponsorship not specified$125k-$229kDetected 1 day ago
TypeScriptNode.jsNoSQLAWSKubernetesAPI DevelopmentRESTOAuthIncident ResponseAccessibilitySupply ChainSignal ProcessingCommunicationMentoring

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odds of building a lasting career here

59Sponsors, lottery-bound
Cap-exempt (no lottery)0
Sponsors this role82
Entry-level history0
PERM / green-card track0
Lottery odds (Level IV)94
Fits your clock70

Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.

Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.

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About the role

  • The API Platform team is the front door to Ventura: every boot, every sign-in, and every API call from a TV in the wild passes through us.

Responsibilities

  • The identity and access model for the OS: authentication, session, device, entitlement, and the multi-tenant authorization that scopes every request to the right partner, user, and device.
  • Design how partners and OEMs safely self-serve on Ventura: the authorization boundaries, the audit trails, and the identity surfaces that make it work at scale.
  • The shared platform every Ventura team builds on: the testing, rollout, and observability infrastructure that lets other engineers change production safely. When it works, everyone ships faster together. When it breaks, they all break at once.
  • they're the other engineers on Ventura who build on top of you, and the standards you set become how the whole org builds.
  • You'll be an end-to-end owner of the systems this team runs, designing, building, and operating them in production while setting the standards other Ventura teams inherit.
  • This role sits at the intersection of API design, identity engineering, and platform work: the problem space spans OAuth and OIDC flows, device attestation, and the authorization model that scopes every request to the right partner, user, and device.
  • By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide.
  • 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.

Requirements

  • Extensive experience designing and operating user-facing APIs in production: the kind that can scale to millions of end users, where reliability and performance are non-negotiable.
  • Background in identity and access management: session, device, entitlement, and multi-tenant authorization models, and the discipline required to get them right.
  • Hands-on experience with API tooling: contract testing, versioning, and safe rollout and migration patterns across many consumers, including the backwards-compatibility discipline needed when you can't assume every consumer will upgrade on your schedule.
  • Track record of end-to-end ownership: significant, self-directed contributions to production services from design through operation, not just feature work.
  • Experience owning a shared platform that other engineering teams build on: codifying standards, running paved paths, and helping partner teams adopt them without disrupting delivery.
  • Strong programming skills in a modern statically typed backend language.
  • Solid understanding of both relational and NoSQL data stores, and how to model tenant-scoped data safely.
  • Deep understanding of system reliability, observability, and operational excellence: SLOs, tracing, structured logging, and on-call rigor for user-facing production services.
  • Track record of leading technical design and influencing architecture across teams, and mentoring engineers through code and design review.
  • Strong communication skills with both engineers and non-technical stakeholders, and comfort scoping and sequencing work in ambiguity.

Nice to have

  • Strong experience running always-on services on Kubernetes and AWS at scale.
  • Experience with a production OIDC identity provider (Keycloak or similar).
  • Experience with device-attestation or public-key device-identity flows (e.g. SPIFFE, mTLS, hardware-root-of-trust patterns).
  • Familiarity with event-driven systems for asynchronous telemetry, audit, or ad pipelines.
  • Background in Smart TV, OTT, CTV, or any API layer that backs a hardware fleet or a consumer-facing OS.
  • 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 Trade Desk also offers other compensation depending on the role such as variable compensation-based incentives and commissions.
  • Click here to learn more.

Compensation

  • In accordance with various US state laws, the range provided is the Trade Desk's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role.

Company info

  • Ventura OS is a new Smart TV operating system being built inside The Trade Desk, the world's leading independent platform for digital advertising. Where the wider company runs a global-scale DSP, Ventura is closer to a startup inside it: a small team, direct influence over product direction, and a real OS shipping to real devices in real living rooms.
  • We're deliberately building the CTV supply chain differently: more efficient for advertisers and publishers, more relevant for viewers, and more transparent end-to-end. The backend that powers all of it is being built now, and API Platform sits at the center of it.
  • About the Team:
  • The API Platform team is the front door to Ventura: every boot, every sign-in, and every API call from a TV in the wild passes through us. That makes us the layer the rest of Ventura builds on. We own the APIs the OS calls as it starts up and runs, the identity provider that authenticates each device and user, the portals operators and partners work through, and the pipelines that carry ads and monetization data out to the wider TTD platform.
  • Ventura OS is a new Smart TV operating system being built inside The Trade Desk, the world's leading independent platform for digital advertising.
  • Where the wider company runs a global-scale DSP, Ventura is closer to a startup inside it: a small team, direct influence over product direction, and a real OS shipping to real devices in real living rooms.
  • We're deliberately building the CTV supply chain differently: more efficient for advertisers and publishers, more relevant for viewers, and more transparent end-to-end.
  • The backend that powers all of it is being built now, and API Platform sits at the center of it.
  • That makes us the layer the rest of Ventura builds on.
  • We own the APIs the OS calls as it starts up and runs, the identity provider that authenticates each device and user, the portals operators and partners work through, and the pipelines that carry ads and monetization data out to the wider TTD platform.
  • You'll also design under a constraint most API work doesn't have: you can't force an upgrade on a TV in someone's living room, so every API decision is close to permanent.
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