Staff Software Engineer, Ads Engineering (AI-Native)

Life360

18h • $152,000 - $280,500 • Remote

About The Position

Life360 is seeking a Staff Level Backend Cloud Engineer to architect and develop robust ad servers and ad ecosystems that seamlessly integrate with third-party services. This role involves designing scalable and efficient backend systems for high-volume ad transactions and real-time performance. The engineer will drive the implementation of innovative features, collaborate with cross-functional teams, leverage cloud technologies to enhance system reliability and performance, and address security and compliance requirements. This position offers the opportunity to shape the future of digital advertising through cutting-edge solutions and strategic technical leadership. The company emphasizes an AI-Native approach, using AI coding tools as a professional standard for analysis, coding, refactoring, testing, and documentation, with engineers being accountable for AI-generated code and expected to operate with significant leverage.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is required.
• 8+ years experience and deep expertise in Java and multi-threaded system design, with the ability to optimize for performance under heavy concurrency.
• Familiarity with AdTech ecosystems, including advertiser technologies or Real-Time Bidding frameworks, is highly desirable.
• Mentor team members and contribute to team processes, technical standards, and help evolve the team's AI-native engineering practices.
• A track record of architecting and operating high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems at significant scale.
• Demonstrated success scaling systems across data centers, including replication strategies and distributed data management.
• Strong judgment in balancing short-term delivery with long-term architectural sustainability.
• Experience influencing technical strategy across teams without direct authority.
• Proven ability to translate business objectives—particularly in advertising or monetization ecosystems—into scalable technical solutions.
• Solid database expertise and a strong understanding of data consistency, performance trade-offs, and capacity planning.
• Experience operating within cloud-native environments, ideally AWS-based infrastructures.
• Feel comfortable with the entire client flow and how it interacts with the various business components (Admin, App, Analytics etc).
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to align engineering, product, and business stakeholders around shared outcomes.

Nice To Haves

• Experience Integrating 3rd party Demand & Supply partners, is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Shape the technical direction of Life360’s Ads AdServer and Exchange platform, ensuring it scales reliably to support 20+ billion daily events with strict latency and availability targets.
• Drive architectural decisions that improve system resiliency, fault tolerance, and performance across distributed, multi–data center environments.
• Elevate the engineering bar by setting standards for design quality, scalability, observability, and operational excellence.
• Enable revenue growth by integrating demand and supply partners and strengthening Real-Time Bidding and auction capabilities.
• Partner with Product and Design to unlock new monetization opportunities through innovative ad formats and platform capabilities.
• Anticipate scaling challenges and proactively design solutions before they impact customers or business performance.
• Lead complex technical initiatives end-to-end, aligning multiple teams around clear architectural outcomes.
• Advance automation and quality practices, including AI-driven API validation and testing strategies, to improve velocity without compromising stability.
• Improve platform reliability by strengthening monitoring, incident response, and root cause analysis practices.
• Mentor senior engineers and act as a force multiplier, increasing the overall effectiveness and technical depth of the organization.
• Work with AI (Claude Code) as a first-class collaborator - orchestrating agents to scaffold services, generate IaC, draft schema definitions, and accelerate code review.
• Apply agentic workflows to reduce overall cycle time and operational overhead.

Benefits

• Competitive pay and benefits.
• Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance plans (100% paid for US employees). We offer supplemental plans for medical and dental for Canadian employees.
• 401(k) plan with company matching program in the US and RRSP with DPSP plan for Canadian employees.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for mental wellness.
• Flexible PTO and 12 company wide days off throughout the year.
• Learning & Development programs.
• Equipment, tools, and reimbursement support for a productive remote environment.
• Free Life360 Platinum Membership for your preferred circle.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior