Senior Software Engineering Manager, Ads Auction & Marketplace Optimization

Senior Software Engineering Manager, Ads Auction & Marketplace Optimization

Roku is hiring a Senior Software Engineering Manager, Ads Auction & Marketplace Optimization. This full‑time role is based in San Jose, California and focuses on building and scaling high‑performance real‑time ad auction and marketplace systems.

The Advertising Performance group drives performance for all participants in the advertising ecosystem – advertisers, publishers, and Roku. The team works across distributed systems at large scale, using machine learning, reinforcement learning, AI, control theory, and optimization to solve complex real‑time multi‑objective problems.

In this role you will build and lead a team focused on optimizing yield and gross profit through real‑time auction and marketplace design, experimentation, and system engineering. You will partner closely with engineering, inventory, and product teams to define strategy, deliver the roadmap, and execute on technical and business objectives.

• Building and mentoring engineering teams across geographic locations and time zones.
• Defining strategy and building a long‑term roadmap in partnership with Product, Science and Engineering teams.
• Leading the design, implementation, and evolution of real‑time ad auction and marketplace systems.
• Building and enhancing core auction capabilities, including ad pod construction, bid valuation, ranking, pricing, pacing and budget enforcement.
• Designing auction logic that balances viewer experience (ad load, relevance, repetition) with advertiser performance, publisher yield, platform revenue, and gross profit.
• Driving yield and gross profit optimization through auction design, floor strategies, and pricing experiments.
• Leading experimentation using A/B testing, auction simulations, offline replay frameworks, and making data‑driven decisions based on performance metrics and statistical rigor.
• Staying at the forefront of advancements in related areas.

• 3+ years of experience leading teams that apply auction theory, quantitative optimization, and advanced statistical methods to large, sophisticated datasets.
• 5+ years experience leading engineering teams from design to implementation, ensuring scalability and reliability.
• Deep mathematical understanding of auction theory, game theory, economics, quantitative optimization, and statistics.
• Hands‑on experience with Python and Java in a production environment.
• BS or higher in Computer Science, Economics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.

• Experience in the advertising domain.
• 5+ years of experience applying auction theory, game theory, economics, quantitative optimization, and advanced statistical methods to large, sophisticated datasets.
• MS or PhD in CS, Economics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.

Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are flexible for remote work except for roles that require full office presence or are located in offices with a five‑day in‑office policy.

Roku welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments in accordance with applicable law. If you require accommodation during the hiring process, please direct inquiries to