Senior Software Development Engineer- Advertising Technology

Senior Software Development Engineer

Expedia Group brands power global travel for everyone, everywhere. We design cutting-edge tech to make travel smoother and more memorable, and we create groundbreaking solutions for our partners. Our diverse, vibrant, and welcoming community is essential in driving our success.
Expedia Group Advertising builds the platforms and experiences that connect advertisers with millions of travelers worldwide. Our mission is to help partners reach the right traveler with the right message at the right time through intuitive advertiser experiences, high‑performance ad delivery systems, and intelligent, AI‑powered optimization.
We are looking for a Senior Software Development Engineer to join our Auction and Bidding team, where you will design, build, and optimize high‑scale, high‑performance, low‑latency systems that power real‑time ad auctions and bidding across our marketplace. You will collaborate closely with Product, Data Science, and Machine Learning engineers to turn ideas into production systems, improve marketplace efficiency and yield, and drive continuous optimization through experimentation. As a senior engineer on the team, you will shape technical direction, champion operational excellence, and consistently raise the technical bar as our platform and business continue to grow.
In this role, you will:
Lead the design, implementation, and evolution of backend services that power ad auction and bidding capabilities and to serve relevant ads and increase advertiser reach to travelers across our ad platform
Drive operational excellence by improving the reliability, scalability, and latency of mission‑critical services
Lead operational reviews that use data and incident learnings to drive systemic improvements in resilience, fault-tolerance and operational maturity
Partner with Product, Data Scientists, and ML Engineers on features such as relevance optimization, targeting, and performance modeling, using experimentation to validate impact
Apply LLMs and generative AI, where appropriate, to improve ad delivery and automate repetitive tasks at scale
Mentor and develop engineers across levels through technical guidance, code reviews, and design feedback, consistently raising the team's technical bar
Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field with 8+ years of experience, or Master's degree with 6+ years, or equivalent related professional experience
Experience driving the end‑to‑end technical design and delivery of multiple complex, multi‑quarter, cross‑team projects
Experience collaborating with product and business partners to identify problems and deliver scalable technical solutions
Strong proficiency in at least one programming language (e.g., Java, Kotlin)
Experience building and operating backend services in the cloud using real-time streaming technologies (e.g., Apache Flink/Kafka) and APIs(gRPC/Protobuf)
Solid understanding of distributed systems, data flows, and operational best practices
Proven track record of driving operational excellence for large‑scale production services (e.g., availability, latency, on‑call ownership, and incident reviews)
Experience working with data‑driven systems, Generative AI/ML‑powered features, or experimentation platforms
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with big data tools and frameworks (e.g., PySpark, Databricks)
Experience with advertising technologies (e.g., Ad serving, Auctions, and bidding)
The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $184,500.00 to $258,000.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $295,000.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.
Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual's knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.
Expedia Group is proud to offer a wide range of benefits to support employees and their families, including medical/dental/vision, paid time off, and an Employee Assistance Program. To fuel each employee's passion for travel, we offer a wellness & travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and an International Airlines Travel Agent ( IATAN ) membership. View our full list of benefits.
Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization.