Senior Software Engineer — Ad Serving

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Live Intent Real-Time Ad Serving team, you will design, develop, and own the business logic that powers programmatic advertising at scale — ad selection, targeting, frequency capping, budget pacing, and delivery optimization.

The real-time platform is built on C++ and Lua: C++ provides the high-performance server framework, while Lua implements the business logic layer. You will work primarily in Lua, developing and evolving the features that directly serve Live Intent's product — ensuring advertisers get the best outcomes and publishers maximize their revenue. While we're open to candidates with experience in any backend language, a willingness to work with Lua is essential — we provide time and the right environment to get up to speed.

You will collaborate closely with Product, working on features that directly impact Live Intent's customers — from ad targeting and delivery to reporting and optimization. This is a hands-on engineering role where your code runs in production handling billions of daily transactions.

This is a hybrid/remote role based out of our Berlin, Germany or Prague, Czech Republic offices.

• Develop and optimize business logic in Lua for ad selection, targeting, frequency capping, and budget pacing
• Design, build, and maintain real-time services processing 200K+ requests per second with strict latency requirements
• Work closely with Product to deliver features that meet advertiser and publisher needs
• Ensure code quality through code reviews, automated testing, and continuous integration
• Participate in architecture discussions and influence the technical roadmap
• Participate in on-call rotation to support production systems

• 5+ years of software engineering experience in backend development
• Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, performance optimization
• Experience building and operating distributed systems in production
• Exposure to the full software development lifecycle — from design to production and monitoring
• Strong commitment to code quality, automated testing, and documentation
• Proficient English (the interview process will be held in English)
• Experience with Lua or willingness to learn (we provide time and the right environment)
• Experience in online advertising / ad tech (RTB, programmatic, DSP/SSP) is a plus
• Proficiency in a systems-level language (C++, Go, Rust, or Java) is a plus
• Experience with MongoDB and real-time data processing is a plus
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS) at scale is a plus
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools and agentic workflows is a plus
• Experience with OpenRTB protocol and ad exchange integrations is a plus

• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage

Senior Software Engineer — Real-Time Ad Serving
• London, England, United Kingdom