Staff Software Engineer, Ads Growth

Team Description

The Advertiser Growth team is the engine driving Reddit’s SMB revenue and active advertiser base. Our mission is to make SMBs successful on the platform and retain them as customers, a goal we are aggressively pursuing by evolving our platform beyond initial activations.

As we look to 2026 and beyond, the Retention focus of our team is critical. We are moving from simple acquisition to full campaign lifecycle support—building intelligent systems that help advertisers optimize their campaigns, understand their value, and remain active on the platform. This team owns high-impact initiatives like the 1 Click Campaign automation, reactivation flows, and sophisticated optimization tools that ensure every advertiser, from a first-time SMB to a returning large merchant, finds success on Reddit.

Role Description

Reporting to the Advertiser Growth Engineering Manager, the person in this role will be the primary technical driver and anchor for the Advertiser Growth Retention team. This is a high-agency position for a "doer" who thrives on shipping code and driving outcomes. You will navigate ambiguity and take decisive ownership of the technical direction for our retention and optimization products, collaborating closely with Product Management, Data Science, and Design.

This role is best classified as the Tech Lead archetype of Staff Engineer. You will act as both a technically adept deep coder and a force multiplier for the team. You will be responsible for scoping complex growth experiments, architecting scalable optimization engines, and ensuring our retention infrastructure is robust and flexible. You will not just plan but build—maintaining a strong bias for action while raising the technical bar for the entire team through mentorship and code reviews.

What You’ll Do

• Steer: Work with the team to select, scope, and drive high-velocity experiments and features that directly impact advertiser retention and revenue (e.g., automated campaign optimization, churn prevention, serving side adjustments).
• Architect: Define the technical roadmap for "full campaign lifecycle support," designing systems that can intelligently guide advertisers through optimization, reporting, and reactivation.
• Build: Maintain a hands-on focus, executing on strategies to create world-class experiences for SMBs. You will lead the development of complex features like one click campaign configurations and targeting and ads serving optimizations
• Amplify: Mentor, coach, and collaborate with other engineers, fostering a culture of experimentation, speed, and technical excellence.
• Collaborate: Partner deeply with Cross-Functional (XFN) teams—including Ads Formats, Ads Signals, and Ads Serving—to ensure our retention products leverage the full power of Reddit’s ads stack.
• Evolve: Stay ahead of the curve on growth engineering best practices, driving a data-driven mindset where every technical decision is tied to business impact.

Qualifications

• Experience: