Senior Software Engineer, Roku
Ads Auction Platform
Convenient & affordable TV streaming players
Open for applications
Convenient & affordable TV streaming players
1001+ employees
Open for applications
1001+ employees
Company mission
To provide its users with a more convenient and cost effective way of watching the programs they love.
Role
Who you are
- Experience building distributed backend services at scale
- Strong coding skills in Java and familiarity with service-oriented architectures
- Experience with low-latency systems and real-time decisioning workflows
- Familiarity with cloud platforms and containerized deployments
- Working knowledge of ad tech concepts such as auctions, pacing, and frequency controls
- Experience collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders across product and data teams
- Comfort with experimentation frameworks and A/B testing analysis
- Strong problem-solving skills and a focus on reliability, observability, and maintainability
What the job involves
- In this role, you will contribute to the Ads Auction and Marketplace systems that optimize yield, gross profit, and real-time multi-objective outcomes across short- and long-term goals
- You will work on core auction capabilities, low-latency services, and scalable integrations that support Roku’s CTV advertising platform
- You will partner closely with Engineering, Inventory, Product, and Data Science teams to translate business objectives into robust technical solutions
- You will help design, implement, and evaluate auction improvements through experimentation and performance analysis
- This is a strong fit for an engineer who enjoys distributed systems, real-time decisioning, and measurable impact in a high-scale marketplace
- Contribute to the design and implementation of real-time ads auction systems for Roku’s CTV advertising platform
- Build and improve auction features including ad pod construction, bid evaluation, ranking, pricing, pacing, and frequency capping
- Develop low-latency, reliable services that handle high-scale ad serving with strict performance and uptime requirements
- Implement auction logic that balances advertiser performance, publisher yield, and platform revenue
- Work on SSP-side auction integration with DSPs, programmatic demand sources, and direct-sold campaigns
- Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and researchers to translate requirements into scalable solutions
- Support yield optimization through auction enhancements, pricing experiments, and demand optimization features
- Participate in A/B testing and experimentation, analyze results, and help implement data-driven improvements
- Help ensure auction correctness and compliance with privacy, regulatory, and brand-safety requirements
- Contribute to technical discussions around architecture, scalability, and performance optimization
Our take
According to Nielsen data, the average streamer spends over seven minutes searching for something to watch. Streaming services use customers' viewing history to make suggestions, but these are limited to programs licensed for that particular service.
Roku provides an integrated streaming service that offers TV channels, movies and third-party streaming services, resulting in an all-in-one streaming platform. The service can be accessed through a variety of customized subscription packages and fees.
Roku stands out in the streaming industry by bringing many competitors together in one package. The startup provides further innovative services such as a weekly TV series named 'Roku Recommends' which uses first-party data to recommend essential viewing to users.
Alongside funding filmmakers through its "Change Makers Program", Roku also acquired its own original library of shows through its acquisition of now-defunct Quibi's library. Then, after successful collaborations with TCL and Hisense, the first in-house "Roku Television" was released. In 2026, it was announced that media giant FOX would acquire Roku, which the companies say will create the third largest player in US TV by share of viewing.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-6% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 9 rounds)
Jan 2016
$45.5m
LATE VC
Nov 2015
$45.5m
SERIES H
Total funding: $247.8m
Company benefits
- Medical, wellness and financial benefits
- Unlimited paid time off policy
- Work from home opportunities
Company HQ
Newhall, San Jose, CA
Leadership
Anthony Wood
(Founder & CEO)Studied Engineering at Texas A&M before founding their first company in 1986. They held VP roles at both Adobe and Netflix.
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