Staff Software Engineer, Ads Platform, Level 6

Location: Los Angeles, Canada | Palo Alto, Canada | Seattle, India

Department: Engineering

Employment Type: Full time

About Snap Inc

Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.

About the Role

Snap Inc is a camera company that believes the camera and AR present the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. We're hiring a Staff Software Engineer, Level 6, for our Ads Platform team in Engineering to power the advertising experiences that fuel Snapchat's vibrant, creative ecosystem. Snapchat reaches hundreds of millions of users daily with visual messaging, Lens Studio's AR creations, and innovative Spectacles AR glasses. Join us to build fun, technically sophisticated products that blend ads seamlessly with authentic self-expression, live moments, and AR innovation, all while prioritizing privacy and precision in a fast-moving culture. In this role, you'll architect next-generation ads formats and backend infrastructure to drive clicks, conversions, and advertiser value, deeply integrated with Snap's camera-first and AR technologies. Work end-to-end—from ideation and experimentation with new ad products to analysis and optimization—while collaborating across teams to translate requirements into scalable solutions. Advocate for operational excellence, mentor peers, and provide company-wide technical direction that enhances our performance advertising suite, ensuring ads amplify user creativity without compromising the ephemeral joy of Snapchat. We're seeking an engineer with 9+ years of experience, proven technical leadership, and ads expertise to tackle ambiguous challenges at massive scale. Thrive in our 'Default Together' culture, working 4+ days a week in-office to accelerate innovation through dynamic collaboration. Snap is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, offering competitive pay (Zone A: $229,000-$343,000 base; equity eligible), comprehensive benefits, and a supportive community that values your unique voice in building the future of AR-driven advertising.

What You'll Do

• Build next-generation ads formats and backend infrastructure to deliver more clicks, conversions, and value for advertisers on Snapchat
• Work end-to-end on innovating new ads product, format ideas, or infrastructure, including experimentation, analysis, and optimization
• Collaborate across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver solutions for innovative ads products
• Advocate for best practices in availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management within the Ads Platform
• Provide technical direction that influences Snap's entire engineering organization and AR/camera-driven products
• Drive technical influence spanning the company, integrating ads with Snapchat's visual messaging and Lens Studio AR capabilities
• Mentor engineers and lead cross-functional initiatives to enhance Snap's performance advertising suite
• Optimize ad delivery systems to leverage Snap's camera technology and real-time AR experiences for advertisers
• Analyze and iterate on ad performance metrics to maximize user engagement and creative expression on Snapchat
• Architect scalable distributed systems that support hundreds of millions of daily Snapchatters
• Foster a creative culture by experimenting with AR-enhanced ad formats that empower authentic self-expression

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field such as computer science, mathematics, statistics, or equivalent practical experience
• 9+ years of industry experience in software engineering
• 2+ years of experience in technical leadership or acting as the domain expert to a technical organization
• Experience in technical leadership/ownership and setting technical direction for engineering projects
• Experience architecting, designing, and developing distributed systems
• Proven track record of operating highly-available systems at scale
• Ads domain expertise and strong interest in advertising technologies

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience delivering large-scale projects in attribution and measurement
• Experience operating highly-available systems at significant scale
• Experience with backend services or distributed systems
• Proven track record of technical leadership in ads platforms
• Background in performance advertising or real-time bidding systems
• Familiarity with AR-integrated advertising experiences

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Excellent programming and software design skills
• Debugging and performance analysis expertise
• Test design and implementation
• Distributed systems architecture
• High-availability systems operations at scale
• Proactive learning of new technologies
• Solving ambiguous problems
• Strong collaboration and cross-team communication
• Technical mentorship and leadership
• Ads domain knowledge and performance optimization
• Backend services development
• Scalability and cost management best practices
• Experimentation and A/B testing frameworks
• Data analysis for ad attribution and measurement
• Influence in technical direction setting
• AR and camera technology integration awareness

Our Benefits

• Paid parental leave
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Emotional and mental health support programs
• Competitive compensation packages with equity in the form of RSUs
• Flexible paid time off and wellness programs
• Professional development opportunities in AR and camera technologies
• Collaborative 'Default Together' office environment 4+ days per week
• Snacks, meals, and perks to support creative work culture
• Long-term success sharing through performance incentives

Compensation

$229,000-$343,000 annually

This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.

"Default Together" Policy: At Snap Inc, we practice a "default together" approach and expect team members to work in an office 4+ days per week.

Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.