Staff Software Engineers design, develop, test, and improve high-scale programmatic advertising systems handling hundreds of billions of daily transactions. The role may focus on backend, frontend, or full-stack product engineering across application platform, channels, and exchange products. Responsibilities include leading cross-team technical projects, collaborating with product and engineering teams, solving complex low-latency systems problems, estimating work in agile environments, and improving coding standards and practices.
At Index Exchange, we’re reinventing how digital advertising works—at scale. As a global advertising supply-side platform, we empower the world’s leading media owners and marketers to thrive in a programmatic, privacy-first ecosystem.
We’re a proud industry pioneer with over 20 years of experience accelerating the ad technology evolution. Our proprietary tech is trusted by some of the world’s largest brands and media owners and plays a crucial role in keeping the internet open, accessible, and largely free.
We process more than 750 billion real-time auctions every day (in comparison, Google processes 8.5 billion searches per day) with ultra-low latency. Our platform is vertically integrated from servers to networks and runs primarily on our own metal and cloud infrastructure. This end-to-end infrastructure is designed to provide both stability and agility, enabling us to adapt quickly as the market evolves.
At the core of it all is our engineering-first culture. Our engineers tackle internet-scale problems across tight-knit, global teams. From moving petabytes of data and optimizing with AI to making real-time infrastructure decisions, Indexers have the agency and influence to shape the future of advertising. We move fast, build thoughtfully, and stay grounded in our core values.
About the role:
We’re looking for Staff and Principal-level software engineers to join teams in our Application Platform, Channels, and Exchange Products divisions. These are product engineering teams with openings for backend, frontend and fullstack skillsets. Ultimate team fit will depend on the experience that an individual candidate is bringing to Index, their interests, and the needs of our different teams.
Here’s what you’ll be doing:
- You’ll be working on cutting edge programmatic ad tech systems that handle hundreds of billions of transactions every day
- The systems and tools you’ll be working on allow our partners to easily interact with our exchange including work on Open-Source projects
- Designing, writing, and testing robust and reliable code
- Working closely with product to deeply understand the domain and identify opportunities for improvements
- Finding practical technological solutions
- Analyzing and estimating work in an agile environment
- Fostering a collaborative environment by bringing people together to come up with better designs and approaches to complex problems
- Suggest, promote and implement improvements to coding standards and practices
Here's what you need:
- Strong software engineering skills, including proficiency in programming languages such as Golang, Java, C#, Typescript (React)
- Demonstrable expertise in complex back-end or front-end systems including experience in designing, developing and testing high quality services
- Excellent problem-solving skills, the ability to think differently, and an understanding that compromise, negotiation and practicality are important qualities
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams
- Extensive experience leading impactful, cross-team technical projects from start to finish
Nice to have:
- Experience in ad tech, programmatic advertising, or related high-scale, low-latency systems is a plus.
Interested in relocation to Toronto, Canada? That's an option too!
Salary: The base salary range for this role is USD $245,000 – $285,000. The total compensation package may vary depending on non-discriminatory factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
Why you’ll love working here:
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans for you and your dependents
- Paid time off, health days, and personal obligation days plus flexible work schedules
- Competitive retirement matching plans
- Equity packages
- Generous parental leave available to birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive parents
- Annual well-being allowance plus fitness discounts and group wellness activities
- Commuter benefits and discounts, where available
- Employee assistance program
- Mental health first aid program that provides an in-the-moment point of contact and reassurance
- One day of volunteer time off per year and a donation-matching program
- Bi-weekly town halls and regular community-led team events
- Multiple resources and programming to support continuous learning
- A workplace that supports a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment – learn more here
Equal employment opportunity
At Index Exchange, we believe that successful products are built by teams just as diverse as the audience who uses them. As such, we are committed to equal employment opportunities. We celebrate diversity of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. Additionally, we realize that diversity is deeper than any status or classification—diversity is the human experience. For those who show grit, passion, and humility—Index will welcome you.
Accessibility for applicants with disabilities
Index Exchange welcomes and encourages individuals with disabilities to apply to work with us.
If you require an accommodation, please share the details of your request and any information how we can assist you with the hiring recruiter when they contact you. Index Exchange will make reasonable efforts to ensure accommodation requests are met throughout the recruitment process.
Index everywhere, Index anywhere
Our corporate headquarters are in Toronto, with major offices in New York, Montreal, Kitchener, London, San Francisco, and many other global cities. As a major global advertising exchange, we are committed to operating as a tightly knit global team and embracing and empowering talent wherever our colleagues may be.
AI Disclaimer: Automated tools including artificial intelligence may be used to assist in screening and assessing applicants for this role. All hiring decisions involve human review.
Vacancy Status: This posting is for existing vacancies.
Index Exchange San Francisco, California, USA Office
201 Mission St Suite 230 , San Francisco, CA, United States, 94105
Similar Jobs
Artificial Intelligence • Cloud • HR Tech • Information Technology • Productivity • Software • Automation
Build and maintain scalable AI Search software across the full development lifecycle, including Java and front-end development, ServiceNow administrative tools, search UI components, GraphQL APIs, analytics dashboards, and machine-learning functionality. Own design, coding, testing, deployment, reliability, and performance optimization. Develop automated and manual tests using Jenkins, JUnit, Playwright, Selenium, and related frameworks. Collaborate with Product Owners and engineering teams in Agile Scrum processes while supporting customer-reported search UI and UX issues.
Top Skills:
AngularCi/CdCSSGraphQLHTMLJavaJavaScriptJenkinsJunitPlaywrightPythonReactSeleniumServicenowTestngUnixVue
Artificial Intelligence • Cloud • HR Tech • Information Technology • Productivity • Software • Automation
Own the technical foundation for Moveworks’ Developer Experience platform. Design and build SDKs, APIs, runtime abstractions, tooling, and developer-facing services that improve productivity and integration velocity. Lead platform strategy, architecture, reliability, observability, and cross-team alignment while mentoring senior engineers. The role requires deep distributed-systems expertise, production microservices experience, and end-to-end ownership of scalable developer platforms used by numerous external teams.
Top Skills:
Agent OrchestrationAPIsDistributed SystemsLlm-Based ArchitecturesMicroservicesMulti-TenancyObservabilitySdks
Automotive • Big Data • Information Technology • Robotics • Software • Transportation • Manufacturing
Lead the architecture and development of GM’s vehicle Core OS virtualization platform. Build hypervisor capabilities, guest OS enablement, secure boot, container runtime, resource governance, health monitoring, and fault recovery across embedded Linux, Android, and QNX. Optimize and debug system performance across hardware and software boundaries, establish CI/CD and HIL validation, and mentor engineers while collaborating with safety, cybersecurity, BSP, and silicon teams.
Top Skills:
AndroidAndroid AutomotiveAospArm SocsAutomated TestingBootloadersCC++Ci/CdContainersEmbedded LinuxFtraceGdbGitGitGunyahHardware-In-The-Loop (Hil)HypervisorsKvmLinux KernelOciPerfPodmanPythonQnxQnx HypervisorRustSecure BootShell ScriptingStraceSystemdVirtioVirtual MachinesXenYocto
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area attracts more startup funding than any other region in the world. Home to Stanford University and UC Berkeley, leading VC firms and several of the world’s most valuable companies, the Bay Area is the place to go for anyone looking to make it big in the tech industry. That said, San Francisco has a lot to offer beyond technology thanks to a thriving art and music scene, excellent food and a short drive to several of the country’s most beautiful recreational areas.
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
