Ads Platform Architect

Zeta Global

Zeta Global

IT
San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 250k-350k / year + Equity
Posted on Sep 4, 2025

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.

Role Description

As an AdTech (DSP) Architect at Zeta Global, you will be a key leader in designing, building, and scaling our Demand-Side Platform (DSP) architecture. You will be responsible for creating a technical vision and roadmap for high-throughput, low-latency systems that handle billions of requests per day. This role requires a deep understanding of the programmatic advertising ecosystem, distributed systems, and real-time bidding (RTB). You'll work closely with engineering, product, and data science teams to ensure our platform is performant, reliable, and innovative.

This is a hybrid role based out of our San Francisco, CA office.

Key Responsibilities

  • Architectural Leadership: Lead the design and implementation of scalable, high-performance, and resilient AdTech solutions, with a specific focus on the DSP.
  • System Design: Design and evolve the architecture of our real-time bidding system, targeting, and optimization algorithms.
  • Technical Strategy: Define the technical roadmap and vision for our AdTech stack, evaluating new technologies and making build vs. buy decisions.
  • AI & Agentic Workflows: Architect and implement intelligent systems using AI agents and agentic workflows to automate and optimize end-to-end marketing campaigns, including audience segmentation, creative generation, and real-time bid adjustments.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with engineering, product, and data science teams to translate business requirements into technical specifications and deliver innovative features, including those powered by Large Language Models (LLMs).
  • Performance & Reliability: Ensure system robustness, observability, and stability in a high-concurrency, low-latency environment.
  • Mentorship: Provide technical guidance and mentorship to engineering teams, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

  • 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 3-5 years in a lead architect or principal engineer role, specifically within the AdTech or MarTech space.
  • Extensive experience designing and building high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems.
  • Deep expertise in the programmatic advertising ecosystem, including Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs), Real-Time Bidding (RTB), Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs), and Ad Exchanges.
  • Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, Scala, or Python.
  • Strong experience with big data technologies and frameworks (Spark, Kafka, Hadoop, HDFS).
  • Expertise with cloud platforms (preferably AWS) and related services.
  • Experience with various data stores, including both SQL and NoSQL databases (Cassandra, DynamoDB, ScyllaDB, Redis).
  • Familiarity with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
  • Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience with Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI applied to advertising, such as for ad copy generation, creative optimization, or personalized messaging.
  • Experience designing and implementing agentic workflows that enable autonomous decision-making and optimization in a real-time environment.
  • Experience with machine learning or AI model serving for real-time applications.
  • Experience with open table formats like Apache Iceberg or Apache Hudi.
  • Familiarity with microservices architecture and event-driven design patterns.
  • A track record of contributing to open-source projects or speaking at industry conferences.

BENEFITS & PERKS

  • Unlimited PTO
  • Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage
  • Employee Equity
  • Employee Discounts, Virtual Wellness Classes, and Pet Insurance And more!!

SALARY RANGE

The salary range for this role is $250,000 - $350,000, depending on location and experience.

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

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