Senior Principal Software Engineer, Mobile App Monetization

About the Role:

PubMatic is seeking an experienced and technically driven Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and development of our next-generation mobile app monetization platform. This role is focused on building high-performance, scalable, real-time systems that drive programmatic monetization across various mobile ad formats, including banners, interstitials, rewarded video, and native ads.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned backend engineer with deep domain expertise in mobile app advertising, OpenRTB protocols, and SDK-DSP-SSP integration workflows. You will work closely with Product, Data Science, and Monetization teams to design ML-integrated systems that optimize yield, latency, and reliability across our mobile ecosystem.

What You'll Do:

• Architect and implement scalable APIs and backend services powering mobile app monetization, including SDK-driven request handling, real-time targeting, ML-based decisioning, and campaign selection logic.

• Develop low-latency, high-throughput server-side systems capable of handling billions of RTB bid requests daily.

• Collaborate with ML Engineering and Data Science teams to integrate models for yield optimization and performance enhancement.

• Design and support A/B testing and experimentation frameworks to evaluate monetization strategies across diverse ad traffic.

• Contribute to the long-term technical strategy and roadmap for the mobile monetization platform.

• Champion engineering best practices in observability, fault tolerance, API performance, and modular architecture.

Who You Are:

• 8 years of backend engineering experience, with a proven track record of building high-scale, low-latency systems, preferably in the mobile app advertising or programmatic AdTech domain.

• Strong programming expertise in C , with additional experience in Go or Java. Solid understanding of Linux/UNIX environments and system-level programming (multi-threading, multi-processing, memory management).

• Proficient in data structures, algorithms, and core computer science principles, with experience designing modular, scalable, and fault-tolerant systems.

• Deep understanding of programmatic advertising workflows, including RTB, OpenRTB 2.x/2.6, bid lifecycle, and mobile SDK monetization.

• Experience integrating with DSPs, ad exchanges, mediation platforms, and working with SDK-DSP-SSP pipelines, including device graph utilization and session-aware ad serving.

• Familiarity with rewarded video, native ad formats, in-app gaming monetization, and mobile-specific privacy regulations (e.g., ATT, COPPA).

• Hands-on experience with real-time ML inference pipelines, working closely with ML engineers and integrating model predictions into latency-sensitive systems.

• Practical knowledge of containerized and microservice architectures, with experience in API integrations, caching solutions, data stores, and cloud-native deployments.

• Skilled in troubleshooting production issues, performing root cause analysis, and supporting live systems with minimal downtime.

• Ability to write clean, modular, loosely coupled code and develop systems with strong observability and monitoring.

• Exposure to generative AI tools and familiarity with prompt engineering and AI-powered developer environments.

• Working knowledge of scripting languages such as Python, Shell, or Perl, and hands-on experience with relational databases, preferably MySQL.

• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills with a collaborative mindset and strong ownership over deliverables.

• Proficiency in AI-assisted coding, automation, prompt engineering, and an understanding of the strengths and limitations of LLM-generated code is a strong plus.

Bonus Qualifications:

• Hands-on experience with mobile monetization SDKs, including client-server interaction and mediation logic.

• Contributions to open-source AdTech projects, such as Prebid Mobile, RTBkit, or header bidding libraries.

• Familiarity with industry-standard ML model serving infrastructures designed for real-time inferencing.

• Understanding of mobile-specific user acquisition and attribution platforms.

• Experience working with incrementality measurement, retargeting systems, or audience segmentation for mobile performance marketing.

• Exposure to privacy-preserving user ID solutions (e.g., UID2.0, RampID) and frameworks like SKAdNetwork (for iOS post-ATT monetization).

• Experience with cross-format monetization strategies, such as combining display, video, and native monetization within the same app session.

• Familiarity with real-time analytics pipelines used to measure monetization KPIs and yield efficiency.

• Publications, patents, or speaking engagements in the areas of mobile monetization, AdTech infrastructure, or ML for AdTech

Additional Information

Return to Office: PubMatic employees throughout the globe have returned to our offices via a hybrid work schedule (3 days "in office" and 2 days "working remotely") that is intended to maximize collaboration, innovation, and productivity among teams and across functions.

Benefits: Our benefits package includes the best of what leading organizations provide such as, paid leave programs, paid holidays, healthcare, dental and vision insurance, disability and life insurance, commuter benefits, physical and financial wellness programs, unlimited DTO in the US (that we actually require you to use!), reimbursement for mobile and fully stocked pantries plus in-office catered lunches 5 days per week.

Diversity and Inclusion: PubMatic is proud to be an equal opportunity employer; we don't just value diversity, we promote and celebrate it. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status

About PubMatic

PubMatic is one of the world's leading scaled digital advertising platforms, offering more transparent advertising solutions to publishers, media buyers, commerce companies and data owners, allowing them to harness the power and potential of the open internet to drive better business outcomes.

Founded in 2006 with the vision that data-driven decisioning would be the future of digital advertising, we enable content creators to run a more profitable advertising business, which in turn allows them to invest back into the multi-screen and multi-format content that consumers demand.

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