Software Engineer, Creative Ads

KERV • Austin, TX

13h • Remote

About The Position

As a Software Engineer on KERV’s Creative Ads team, you’ll be a key contributor building the visual products our clients and audiences actually see. This is a small, focused team responsible for our dynamic video generation pipeline, a video template studio, and the interactive overlay that powers ad experiences on top of video content (including VPAID-based ad products).
What makes this role unique is the blend: one day you’re optimizing AWS Step Functions and FFmpeg-powered Lambda layers that generate video at scale, and the next you’re iterating on a React-based studio interface alongside a designer. You’ll work closely with product and creative teams — not just fulfilling client requests, but proactively A/B testing new ad formats and pushing the boundaries of what our products can do.
You’ll also be helping establish this team from the ground up — shaping CI/CD practices, building out observability, and hardening production systems as the team matures.
If you thrive at the intersection of creative tooling, cloud infrastructure, and a fast iteration cycle with a team that ships work people can see — this is for you.

Requirements

• 3–7+ years of professional experience developing web-based applications
• Strong experience with JavaScript/TypeScript across both frontend and backend
• Professional experience with React; additional experience with Svelte is a plus
• Experience with Node.js in production environments
• Working knowledge of AWS services, particularly Lambda, S3, and Step Functions — or comparable cloud infrastructure experience
• Comfort working across the stack, from UI components to serverless backend services
• Ownership mindset — you can take responsibility for a slice of the system end-to-end, propose tradeoffs, and collaborate closely with teammates through pairing, code review, and clear communication
• Strong asynchronous communication skills, ensuring efficient and effective collaboration with remote team members
• Experience with or strong interest in AI-driven prompt engineering and AI coding assistants

Nice To Haves

• Experience with video processing technologies (FFmpeg, transcoding, video playback, MediaConvert)
• Familiarity with Adobe After Effects or the Adobe Creative Suite, particularly Lottie/JSON export workflows
• Experience with browser automation tools (Puppeteer, Playwright)
• Background in animation systems, 2D graphics programming, or creative tooling
• Python experience, particularly in media/video processing contexts
• Experience with the Serverless Framework or similar IaC tools
• Digital advertising experience, specifically with video ad technologies (VAST, VPAID)
• Experience with A/B testing frameworks and experimentation methodology
• Experience developing an enterprise or SaaS product
• Previous experience in a startup environment

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain our dynamic video generation pipeline — a multi-stage, serverless orchestration system on AWS that produces video creatives at scale
• Develop and improve our video template studio and interactive overlay applications using modern frontend frameworks (React, Svelte)
• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and creative teams to translate ad concepts into shippable features
• Proactively design and run A/B tests on ad formats, creative treatments, and user experiences to drive measurable performance improvements
• Help harden production systems: improve observability (CloudWatch, logging), error handling, CI/CD pipelines, and cost/performance tuning across the video pipeline
• Contribute to architectural decisions, weighing long-term maintainability against short-term delivery needs
• Write clean, well-tested code across a diverse codebase — from serverless pipeline orchestration to client-facing ad experiences where visual quality and stability are immediately visible
• Participate in team code reviews, sharing knowledge and learning from others
• Participate in sprint planning, ensuring that realistic plans are set forth and delivered
• Communicate effectively within the engineering team and with non-technical teams
• Have the discipline to shift between establishing new features and maintaining legacy features based on the needs of the business

Benefits

• Unlimited PTO with a healthy culture of taking time off to recharge so you can bring your best self to work
• Competitive compensation packages
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits including modern support services via Bennie, such as a custom app and healthcare concierge to support a simplified benefits experience for our staff
• Mental Health Support via Samata Health paid 100% by KERV
• 401K with company match and 100% vesting on day 1
• Unlimited referral bonuses
• Flexible working schedules with remote and hybrid opportunities
• Fitness Reimbursement Program
• “Moments that Matter” program, centered around our heart-centered value, which celebrates and supports employees through life’s biggest wins, transitions, and challenges — because at KERV, we show up for each other beyond just the work.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees