Principal Software Engineer, Ads Platform

Snap Inc. is a technology company focused on the camera as the greatest opportunity to improve how people live and communicate. We contribute to human progress by empowering expression, living in the moment, learning about the world, and having fun together. Our products include Snapchat, Specs Inc., Bitmoji, and Saturn, reaching hundreds of millions of users globally.

About the role

We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join the Ads Platform team. You’ll build the next generation of ads formats and backend infrastructure to deliver more value for advertisers through clicks, conversions, and performance. This role involves end-to-end innovation—from ideation to experimentation, analysis, and optimization—while collaborating across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver scalable solutions. You’ll advocate for best practices in availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management, and provide technical direction that influences the entire company.

Responsibilities

• Build next-generation ads formats and backend infrastructure to improve advertiser value through clicks and conversions.
• Work end-to-end on innovating new ads products, formats, or infrastructure, including experimentation, analysis, and optimization.
• Collaborate across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver solutions for Snap’s performance advertising suite.
• Advocate for and apply best practices in availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management.
• Provide technical direction that influences the entire company.
• Utilize AI tools and high-velocity engineering workflows to design and ship scalable services while upholding rigorous standards for code correctness, security, and production-ready quality.

Requirements

• Excellent programming and software design skills, including debugging, performance analysis, and test design.
• Proven track record of operating highly available systems at scale.
• Ability to proactively learn new concepts and technology and apply them at work.
• Skilled at solving ambiguous problems.
• Strong collaboration and mentorship skills.
• Ads domain expertise and a strong interest in Ads.
• Adaptability in learning and applying evolving AI systems and tools to remain at the forefront of engineering trends.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field such as computer science, mathematics, or statistics, or equivalent years of experience.
• 10+ years of post-Bachelor’s software development experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field + 9+ years of post-grad software development experience; or a PhD in a related technical field + 6+ years of post-grad software development experience.
• 2+ years of experience with technical leadership or acting as the domain expert for a technical organization.
• Experience in technical leadership/ownership and setting technical direction for engineering projects.
• Experience architecting, designing, and developing distributed systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven track record of delivering large-scale projects in attribution and measurement.
• Experience operating highly available systems at significant scale.
• Experience with backend services or distributed systems.
• Ads domain experience.

Schedule

This role follows a “default together” approach, with an expectation to work in an office 4+ days per week.

Pay

In the United States, work locations are assigned a pay zone which determines the salary range for the position. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions, and may be negotiable within the salary range for the position.

• Zone A (CA, WA, NYC): $276,000–$414,000 annually.
• Zone B: $262,000–$393,000 annually.
• Zone C: $235,000–$352,000 annually.

This position is also eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.

Benefits

• Paid parental leave.
• Comprehensive medical coverage.
• Emotional and mental health support programs.
• Compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success.