Principal Data Engineer, Sovrn
$200-240k
+ Bonus, equity
More information about location
Advertising tools & services for content creators
Be an early applicant
Advertising tools & services for content creators
101-200 employees
Be an early applicant
$200-240k
+ Bonus, equity
More information about location
101-200 employees
Company mission
To empower independent content creators and publishers to grow their businesses and achieve the attention they deserve.
Role
Who you are
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong data engineering and backend track record
- 5+ years working specifically in adtech data infrastructure, SSP, DSP, exchange, or ad server environments
- Deep fluency in the programmatic ecosystem: OpenRTB, bid request/response flows, auction mechanics, supply path optimization, or similar
- Excellent understanding of real-time streaming and batch pipelines, big data, and data lakes; hands-on experience in distributed data processing in the AWS ecosystem
- Strong understanding of second-layer big data platforms such as Snowflake and Databricks, applicable use cases, best practices, implementation, and support considerations
- Strong experience in structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data techniques; metadata management, data lineage, and data governance
- Experience with data security and compliance (PII, CCPA, GDPR, etc.)
- Demonstrated experience leading AI or agentic engineering efforts in production environments; not just experimentation, but shipped, operated, and iterated on
- Hands-on experience with LLM integration patterns: RAG, vector DBs, tool use, multi-step agentic workflows, prompt engineering, and evaluation frameworks
- Ability to clearly document and communicate architectural concepts at multiple levels; ability to lead problem definition, solution designs, and implementation work plans
- Understanding of DevOps and SRE practices
- Comfort driving technical decisions in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
- A point of view on where AI is and isn’t the right too, and the credibility to make that case
What the job involves
- We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer (Data) with deep roots in adtech data infrastructure and a genuine conviction about what AI-native data engineering looks like in practice
- This is a specialized principal-level engineering role — one that carries all the architectural ownership and technical leadership expectations of a Principal Software Engineer, focused on Sovrn’s Data Collective
- From a generative/agentic AI capabilities standpoint, we already use LLMs and agentic tooling across our data stack and, we’re looking for is someone who can help us take that from general adoption to intentional practice — who has strong opinions about where AI creates real leverage in a high-throughput adtech environment, and who can bring the rest of the engineering organization along with them
- Languages/components/tools in our stack: Python, Pyspark, Kafka, Databricks, AWS
- Own the design and evolution of data platform systems that operate at exchange scale; high throughput, real-time streaming, and always-on batch pipelines
- Lead architectural decisions across data infrastructure: pipeline design, data modeling, lakehouse architecture, and data services layers
- Specify data platform components and configurations required for pipeline implementation; define pipeline observability to understand and improve performance at massive scale
- Research, implement, and evolve methods to process and democratize data across the organization
- Drive technical standards, design reviews, and engineering best practices across a senior team
- Partner with product, data science, and platform teams to ship end-to-end
- Establish and champion AI engineering practices across the team, from prompt engineering and RAG patterns to agentic workflow design, LLM evaluation, and progressive implementation of agentic design patterns
- Identify high-leverage opportunities to apply AI in our data stack: intelligent pipeline optimization, anomaly detection, automated data quality, forecasting, and LLM-powered data services
- Lead the evolution of our existing LLM and agentic tooling from passive use to intentional, well-architected integration within our data platform
- Set standards for how we evaluate, trust, and operate AI-powered systems in production, including observability, fallback behavior, and model governance
- Help the broader engineering team build fluency and confidence with AI tooling, not just tolerance of it
- Provide domain expertise across the organization to enable business growth through data services and data models
- Provide counsel to all consumers and stakeholders of data to enable efficient and impactful use of our data assets
- Mentor and level up engineers through code review, design collaboration, and hands-on guidance; foster a culture of innovation and continuous learning
- Operate with high autonomy across ambiguous, high-impact problems
Application process
- Applications will be accepted until July 1, 2026
Our take
The monetization of online content creation can be very lucrative but requires time, resources and expertise outside of writing. Passionate writers who focus on storytelling and creating inspiring content may waste valuable time attempting to develop their business, and hiring somebody to do this is often too expensive for independent writers.
Sovrn tackles this in a smart way by providing writers with simple-to-use tools that take the stress out of monetization. It works with publishers and advertisers to provide opportunities to passionate writers, allowing them to focus on excelling at their job rather than dealing with distribution, monetization and operations - all of which Sovrn is able to handle.
The startup claims to be able to drive higher revenues and scale a publishing business, at the same time as allowing writers to focus on what they do best. It has seen significant investment that will enable it to pursue acquisitions and support the further expansion of its platform with more capabilities to be added in the future.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-19% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Aug 2022
$35.6m
LATE VC
Jul 2022
$36m
SERIES C
Total funding: $132.6m
Company benefits
- Work at a company that values your strengths. See the results of your actions. There are no barriers at Sovrn
- First-class health benefits, wellness options, and a host of life-improvement perks that help you be the best you
- Retirement benefits, 401k matching, and stock options show we’re equally dedicated to financial health
- In-house barista, catered lunches and breakfasts
- Volunteer opportunities
- Flexible vacation and a focus on mental and physical health mean you’ll have time for life outside the office
- Learn new skills. Pursue great ideas. Take on new opportunities and thrive in a workplace that rewards your efforts
Company HQ
Boulder, CO
Leadership
Walter Knapp
(CEO)Having studied at the University of Colorado, they worked as a Partner at Cambridge Technology, and Novell Ventures for a combined 6 years. They worked as SuSE Linux at Novel, COO of Lijit Networks, and COO of Federated Media Publishing before leaving in January 2014 to found Sovrn.
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