Technical Lead/Mgr - Software Engineering

About Us

Aarki is an AI company that builds advertising solutions to drive mobile revenue growth. We use AI to find audiences in a privacy-first world by using trillions of contextual bidding signals coupled with proprietary behavioral models. Our audience engagement platform includes a full-service agency team and Unified Creative Strategy that delivers ad creative ideation and execution. We have worked with hundreds of advertisers over 14 years and see 5M mobile ad requests per second from over 10B devices, driving performance for publishers and brands. Aarki is independently operated and headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with offices across the United States, EMEA, and APAC.

Role Overview

Aarki is seeking a Technical Lead to join our engineering team in San Francisco. This role is ideal for a seasoned software engineer with 10+ years of experience who wants to balance hands-on development, technical leadership, and mentorship. As a Technical Lead, you will drive the evolution of our programmatic Demand-Side Platform (DSP), which leverages advanced machine learning and cutting-edge software architecture to optimize performance at scale. You will play a crucial role in mentoring engineers, shaping technical strategy, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact solutions.

Role & Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Define architectural direction, drive technical initiatives, and ensure scalability and efficiency.
• Hands-on Development: Lead by example by actively contributing to the design, development, and optimization of core platform components.
• Mentorship & Team Growth: Coach and guide engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and technical excellence.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with product managers, data scientists, and infrastructure teams to align engineering efforts with business objectives.
• Code Quality & Best Practices: Enforce high coding standards, conduct design/code reviews, and champion engineering best practices.
• Performance & Scalability: Architect and optimize high-throughput, low-latency systems that handle millions of ad requests per second.

Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of experience in software development, with at least 3 years in a leadership or mentoring role.
• Deep expertise in high-performance server-side development using C/C++, Java, Rust, or similar.
• Strong fundamentals in computer science, software design, distributed systems, and scalable architecture.
• Experience in real-time bidding (RTB), programmatic advertising, or large-scale distributed systems is highly preferred.
• Proven ability to mentor and lead engineering teams, driving technical excellence and team productivity.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills.
• Master’s degree preferred (or equivalent experience) in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

This role offers a unique opportunity to lead, innovate, and build AI-driven ad tech solutions at scale. If you're a hands-on leader passionate about both technology and mentorship, we’d love to hear from you!