Principal Software Engineer, Ads
Reddit is the home of conversation on the internet. Our Ads Engineering organization is responsible for the technology that fuels Reddit’s mission, connecting millions of users with brands through authentic, non-intrusive, and highly effective advertising experiences.
We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer (L7) to serve as the technical anchor for our ads product engineering efforts. Reporting directly to the Senior Director of Engineering, you will span a diverse engineering portfolio that includes Ad Formats (the consumer-facing ad experience), Ads Manager (the advertiser-facing operational tool), Ads Safety (brand suitability and verification), and Solutions Engineering (business integrations).
This is a product-oriented technical leadership role. You will not just be solving scale problems; you will be solving business problems through architecture. You will define how Reddit builds ads products for the next 3-5 years, ensuring we can iterate rapidly on new customer experiences while maintaining rigorous technical standards and a cohesive suite of offerings.
What You’ll Do
- Technical Strategy: Operate across the company, partnering with Consumer Product, Core Infrastructure, and Trust & Safety leadership to align technical roadmaps. You will identify company-level problems and drive solutions that benefit the entire engineering organization
- Cross-Domain Architecture: Architect systems that span the entire Reddit stack.
- Organizational Transformation: Identify bottlenecks in how our teams build software—whether technical (legacy debt, slow CI/CD) or organizational (siloed teams, unclear contracts)—and drive systemic changes to resolve them. You will solve hard technical and organizational problems.
- Mentorship: Serve as a beacon of engineering excellence, specifically mentoring Staff (L6) and Senior (L5) engineers. You will help them navigate career growth, technical challenges, and influence, raising the bar for the entire ~100-person organization
- Full-Stack Agnosticism: Whether your background is primarily Frontend or Backend, you will own the end-to-end technical solution. You will ensure that API designs enable performant UIs and that data models support future product flexibility.
Who You Might Be
- A Product-Centric Technologist: You care deeply about the user experience (both redditors and advertisers). You evaluate technical trade-offs based on user value and business velocity, not just pure engineering elegance.
- An Organizational Influencer: You have a proven track record of solving problems that require both code changes and people/process changes. You can influence VPs and Directors as effectively as you can code.
- Ads Domain Expert: You understand the complexities of the ad tech ecosystem—auctions, attribution, privacy (ATT/SKAdNetwork), brand safety, and campaign management.
- Force Multiplier: You have a history of making the teams around you significantly better, faster, and happier.
Benefits:
- Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits and Income Replacement Programs
- 401k with Employer Match
- Global Benefit programs that fit your lifestyle, from workspace to professional development to caregiving support
- Family Planning Support
- Gender-Affirming Care
- Mental Health & Coaching Benefits
- Flexible Vacation & Paid Volunteer Time Off
- Generous Paid Parental Leave
Pay Transparency:
This job posting may span more than one career level.
In addition to base salary, this job is eligible to receive equity in the form of restricted stock units, and depending on the position offered, it may also be eligible to receive a commission. Additionally, Reddit offers a wide range of benefits to U.S.-based employees, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) program with employer match, generous time off for vacation, and parental leave. To learn more, please visit https://www.redditinc.com/careers/.
To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. We set standard base pay ranges for all roles based on function, level, and country location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including, skills, depth of work experience and relevant licenses/credentials, and may vary from the amounts listed below.
The base pay range for this position is:
$260,800 - $365,100 USD
In select roles and locations, the interviews will be recorded, transcribed and summarized by artificial intelligence (AI). You will have the opportunity to opt out of recording, transcription and summarization prior to any scheduled interviews.
During the interview, we will collect the following categories of personal information: Identifiers, Professional and Employment-Related Information, Sensory Information (audio/video recording), and any other categories of personal information you choose to share with us. We will use this information to evaluate your application for employment or an independent contractor role, as applicable. We will not sell your personal information or disclose it to any third party for their marketing purposes. We will delete any recording of your interview promptly after making a hiring decision. For more information about how we will handle your personal information, including our retention of it, please refer to our Candidate Privacy Policy for Potential Employees and Contractors.
Reddit is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to building a workforce representative of the diverse communities we serve. Reddit is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If, due to a disability, you need an accommodation during the interview process, please let your recruiter know.
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