Senior Software Engineer — Real-Time Ad Serving

WHO WE ARE

Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA) is the AI-Powered Marketing Cloud that leverages advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and trillions of consumer signals to make it easier for marketers to acquire, grow, and retain customers more efficiently. Through the Zeta Marketing Platform (ZMP), our vision is to make sophisticated marketing simple by unifying identity, intelligence, and omnichannel activation into a single platform – powered by one of the industry’s largest proprietary databases and AI. Our enterprise customers across multiple verticals are empowered to personalize experiences with consumers at an individual level across every channel, delivering better results for marketing programs. Zeta was founded in 2007 by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley and is headquartered in New York City with offices around the world. To learn more, go to www.zetaglobal.com .

THE ROLE

As a Senior Software Engineer on the LiveIntent 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 LiveIntent'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 LiveIntent'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.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

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

DESIRED CHARACTERISTICS

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

BENEFITS & PERKS

Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage

PEOPLE & CULTURE AT ZETA

Zeta considers applicants for employment without regard to, and does not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status as a veteran, or national or ethnic origin; nor does Zeta discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

We’re committed to building a workplace culture of trust and belonging, so everyone feels invited to bring their whole selves to work. We provide a forum for employees to celebrate, support and advocate for one another. Learn more about our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion here: https://zetaglobal.com/blog/a-look-into-zetas-ergs/

ZETA IN THE NEWS!

https://zetaglobal.com/press/?cat=press-releases