Senior Software Engineer — Real-Time Ad Serving

The role

You will design, build and own the business logic for real-time ad serving, covering ad selection, targeting, frequency capping and budget pacing. You will work mostly in Lua with the Product team, and your code runs in production handling billions of daily transactions.

What you will do

• Develop and optimize business logic in Lua for ad selection, targeting, frequency capping, and budget pacing
• Design, build, and maintain real-time services processing 200K+ requests per second with strict latency requirements
• Work closely with Product to deliver features that meet advertiser and publisher needs
• Ensure code quality through code reviews, automated testing, and continuous integration
• Participate in architecture discussions and influence the technical roadmap
• Participate in on-call rotation to support production systems

Required qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience in backend development
• Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, performance optimization
• Experience building and operating distributed systems in production
• Exposure to the full software development lifecycle, from design to production and monitoring
• Strong commitment to code quality, automated testing, and documentation
• Proficient English (the interview process will be held in English)
• Experience with Lua or willingness to learn (we provide time and the right environment)
• A willingness to work with Lua is essential

Nice to have

• Experience in online advertising / ad tech (RTB, programmatic, DSP/SSP)
• Proficiency in a systems-level language (C++, Go, Rust, or Java)
• Experience with MongoDB and real-time data processing
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS) at scale
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools and agentic workflows
• Experience with OpenRTB protocol and ad exchange integrations

Benefits

• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage

Before you apply

• Proficient English is required, as the interview process is held in English

About the company

Zeta Global is an AI-powered marketing cloud headquartered in New York City, with offices around the world. It helps marketers acquire, grow and retain customers through its Zeta Marketing Platform.