Engineering Manager I, Creatives

About the role

The role coordinates creative pipeline operations for a remote-first advertising technology team. The manager leads backend engineers who own the serving and selection of creatives in programmatic advertising. Success depends on aligning technical execution with product milestones across Bidding, Data Science, and Product teams.

Software engineers turn product ideas into working code. Engineers work in small teams, review each other's work, and ship in small batches. Most teams follow agile practices such as sprints and daily standups. Engineers also write tests, fix bugs, and improve performance. The field values clear communication as much as technical skill. Engineers spend part of every week on planning, code review, and debugging, not just writing new code. The ability to explain a technical decision in plain words separates strong engineers from the rest.

Key facts

Requirements

Experience in adtech or martech, including creative serving in programmatic advertising and understanding of advertising channels.

Experience with Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) and ad markup and rendering.

1+ years of people management or 2+ years as a tech lead or mentor for a backend team, with desire to grow into management.

5+ years of backend development in distributed systems, microservices, and high-throughput, low-latency services.

Proficiency in at least one backend language, with Golang preferred; Java, Kotlin, C++, or Rust accepted.

Hands-on leadership style, comfortable reviewing code, debating architecture, and diving into production incidents.

Strong grasp of computer science fundamentals, data structures, and algorithms.

Working knowledge of modern development methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban, with a track record of delivering on milestones.

Clear, transparent communication with both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders including Product and Project Management.

Hands-on experience with the team's stack and tools.

Nice to have

Frontend development experience with understanding of web technologies and how creatives render in the browser.

Experience operating systems under global compliance and privacy frameworks.

Practical notes

Typical interview steps

Hiring for engineering roles usually starts with a recruiter screen, followed by one or two technical rounds. Candidates often solve a coding problem, discuss past projects, and answer system design questions. Some loops include a take-home task. Final rounds typically cover team fit and give candidates a chance to ask questions. Interviewers look for how you break down an unfamiliar problem, not just whether you reach the answer. Practicing a few problems aloud and reviewing your own past projects are the best preparation.

Good to know

Roles in advertising technology involve integrating with demand sources, ad exchanges, and data platforms to deliver campaigns.

Backend services in high-throughput environments rely on efficient data structures, concurrency models, and resilient system design.

Cloud infrastructure on AWS combined with container orchestration using Kubernetes is common in modern ad tech stacks.

Streaming platforms such as Kafka support real-time data pipelines for audience targeting and optimization.

Low-latency services require careful profiling, caching strategies, and monitoring to meet strict response time targets.

Cross-functional collaboration with data science and product teams is typical when optimizing campaign performance.

Career growth

Engineering careers usually progress from individual contributor to senior, staff, and principal levels. Some engineers move into management and lead teams of five to twenty people. Others stay on the technical track. Growth follows demonstrated impact, not tenure alone. A typical engineering ladder has clear levels with defined expectations for scope, quality, and mentorship. Moving up usually requires owning outcomes end to end rather than completing assigned tickets.