Software Engineer, Backend

Cognitiv is an AdTech company developing a deep learning advertising platform for media buying and AI-driven advertising solutions. The Backend Software Engineer will build and maintain the foundational platform powering real-time bidding and campaign execution, taking platform features from design through production while improving reliability, code quality, and engineering progress.

Responsibilities

**Own Feature Delivery:** Take responsibility for a feature from kickoff through post-launch support, owning the release plan, branch strategy, canary, and automated rollback

**Deliver Reliable Code:** Author production-ready code with meaningful observability (metrics/traces/logs) and automated test coverage ≥ 80%. Recognize edge cases and propose straightforward solutions with moderate guidance

**Strengthen Reliability:** Keep service SLOs green by adding missing alerts and dashboards proactively. Participate in on-call and contribute to blameless post-mortems with actionable follow-ups within sprint

**Contribute to Design:** Author design docs for single-feature or single-service work that incorporate cost, scale, and rollback considerations. Connect features to OKRs or user metrics and advocate for small UX improvements

**Collaborate & Mentor:** Facilitate design or planning meetings for the team, build trust with adjacent teams through reliable follow-through, and mentor interns or new hires on the codebase and processes

Preferred

Experience with cloud platforms, distributed systems, or improving developer workflows, documentation, or internal tooling

Background in real-time bidding, ad serving, or similarly latency-sensitive, high-throughput systems

Cloud Platforms

Distributed Systems

Developer Workflow Improvement

Technical Documentation

Internal Tooling

Real-Time Bidding

Ad Serving

Latency-Sensitive Systems

High-Throughput Systems

Benefits

Equity for all employees

Medical, Dental and Vision plan for US employees

12 weeks paid parental leave + 4 weeks WFH

Unlimited PTO + Work-From-Anywhere August

Career development with clear advancement paths

Hybrid work model & daily team lunch

Health & wellness stipend + cell phone reimbursement

401(k) with employer match

Parking (CA, WA, Vancouver offices) & pre-tax commuter benefits

Employee Assistance Program

Comprehensive onboarding (Cognitiv University)

Festiv – We make work fun with cross-team games, events, and creative team bonding.

Responsiv – You’ll be close to clients and leadership, influencing real outcomes.

Inclusiv – Diversity and individuality are celebrated across all levels.

Inventiv – We reward curiosity and embrace bold ideas.

Transformativ – We support your growth with training, mentorship, and flexibility.

Collaborativ – We operate across coasts, connected by purpose and teamwork.

Company

Deep learning advertising platform for AI-driven marketing

New York, New York, USA

https://cognitiv.ai/

Founded in 2015

51-200 employees

Qualifications

Strong programming skills in one or more modern backend languages (preferably .NET Core/C#), with experience building and shipping production software in a collaborative engineering environment

Hands-on experience working with relational databases (PostgreSQL/SQL) and high-volume data stores

Solid understanding of testing, debugging, code review, and software development best practices; consistently delivers well-tested, maintainable code

Track record of independently delivering small-to-medium features end-to-end—from design through deployment—within a sprint cadence

Familiarity with on-call responsibilities, runbooks, and contributing to system reliability and operational health. (DataDog, AWS)

Clear communicator who can explain decisions and collaborate effectively with technical and non-technical partners

Proven track record of independently taking small-to-medium features from concept to production within a sprint cadence, taking end-to-end accountability for code quality, rollouts, and post-launch health

Comfortable breaking down loosely-scoped tickets into clear technical tasks, asking the right questions early, and executing with moderate guidance rather than step-by-step direction

Quick to adopt new technologies, operational tools, and domain concepts, adjusting smoothly as system needs and business priorities evolve

Experience with cloud platforms, distributed systems, or improving developer workflows, documentation, or internal tooling

Background in real-time bidding, ad serving, or similarly latency-sensitive, high-throughput systems

Required skills

Represents the skills you have, click on the tags, .NET Core, C#, SQL, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, DataDog, Backend Software Development, Relational Databases, Distributed Systems, Real-Time Bidding

Experience

Mid level