Staff Backend Engineer - Ads Formats

Faire
Toronto, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

Aimed at mid-level backend engineers with ad tech experience who thrive in cross-functional product development and AI integration.

Best fit for

  • Technical leaders who can architect high-scale ad serving systems
    — “Define the end-to-end architecture for our next-generation ad formats
  • Product-minded engineers comfortable shaping ambiguous business problems
    — “turns ambiguous business problems into clear product and technical direction
  • AI-native practitioners embedding modern tooling into workflows
    — “using modern AI tooling as a core part of how you deliver impact

Things to consider

  • Hybrid schedule requires 3 office days weekly with limited remote flexibility
    — “go into the office 3 days per week
  • Toronto-based candidates given pay range adjustments for local market
    — “primary work location. The base pay range provided is subject to change

How to stand out

  • Showcase specific examples of scaling creative ad formats
    — “building and scaling ad formats or similar user-facing content delivery systems
  • Highlight cross-platform experience if present in background
    — “Experience with cross-platform development
  • Demonstrate mentorship impact through concrete team upskilling examples
    — “Guide and upskill other engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Own the technical vision for next-generation ad formats
  • Build highly automated systems for ad format serving
Typical background
7+ years of professional software engineering experienceExperience in building and scaling ad formats

Skills & requirements

Required

Backend EngineeringAd FormatsHigh-scale SystemsLow-latency SystemsA/B Testing

Preferred

Video Ad FormatsBrand Creative Formats

Stack & domain

Backend EngineeringAd FormatsVideoBrand CreativeAd Format ServingOptimizationA/b TestingAi ToolingTechnical Problem SolvingCommunication

About the role

Original posting from Faire via Greenhouse

About Faire

Faire is a technology wholesale platform built on the belief that the future is local. Independent retailers around the globe collectively represent a multi-hundred-billion-dollar wholesale market that has historically been fragmented and offline. At Faire, we're using the power of tech, data, and machine learning to connect this thriving community of entrepreneurs across the globe. Picture your favorite boutique in town — we help them discover the best products from around the world to sell in their stores. With the right tools and insights, we believe that we can level the playing field so businesses can grow and local communities can thrive.

We’re looking for smart, resourceful and passionate people to join us as we power the shop local movement. If you believe in community, come join ours.

About the Role:

The Ads Supply pod grows Faire's Ads business by expanding where, how, and in what format ads show up. Almost all of Faire's ads today are promoted product listings, and we'll unlock top-of-market opportunities for our advertisers with premium creative formats.

As a technical leader, you'll own building the high-scale, low-latency systems that serve and render premium formats like video and brand creative across every surface and device. Working hands-on across the full stack and co-shaping the experience with Product and Design, you'll unify creative serving, formats, and rendering into one cohesive system, partnering closely with Ads Delivery and Ads Bidding and enabling fast, measurable experimentation. You'll also set the technical direction for ad formats at Faire and shape the roadmap for what we build next.

What You'll Do:

Own the technical vision: Define the end-to-end architecture for our next-generation ad formats, including a unified serving layer that keeps the experience fast, scalable, and reliable across surfaces and devices.

Build the systems behind every format: Design highly automated systems for ad format serving, optimization, and A/B testing that maximize business outcomes.

Lay the foundations for future formats: Build the framework-level solutions that make new formats faster to ship and deepen how well we understand our users.

Invent what comes next: Conceptualize, prototype, and run experiments on new ad format ideas, drawing on market trends, user behavior, and advertiser needs to find the opportunities with real business impact.

Drive cross-functional impact: Operate as a product builder who brings customer understanding to the work, partnering closely with Product, Design, Data Science, and other engineering teams to deliver cohesive, high-impact solutions.

Raise the engineering bar: Advocate for and apply best practices across availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management.

Mentor and lead: Guide and upskill other engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and continuous learning.

Qualifications:

7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 3+ years as a technical leader driving complex, cross-team projects.

Deep expertise in building and scaling ad formats or similar user-facing content delivery systems.

Excellent programming and system design skills, with a proven track record of leading and operating highly available, high-performance, low-latency backend systems at scale.

AI-native, using modern AI tooling as a core part of how you deliver impact and embedding AI best practices into your daily workflow.

A product builder who understands customers deeply, helps shape what gets built, and turns ambiguous business problems into clear product and technical direction.

Strong collaboration, mentorship, and leadership: a compelling vision, clear communication, and the ability to drive concurrent projects and influence strategy with a collaborative leadership style.

Nice to have:

Experience with cross-platform development.

Prior experience building or operating creative serving infrastructure for digital advertising, especially for new and rich ad formats (e.g., video or interactive creative).

Experience with machine learning and gen-AI in advertising, such as ranking, retrieval, and optimization.

Technologies we use and teach:

Backend: Kotlin, Java 16, Hibernate, Guice, Jersey

Search and data: Elasticsearch, FAISS, Redis, DynamoDB

Communication: Protocol Buffers, HTTP, JSON

Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes, Buildkite, Datadog

Salary Range:

Canada: the pay range for this role is $190,500 - $262,000 per year. 

This role will also be eligible for equity and benefits. Actual base pay will be determined based on permissible factors such as transferable skills, work experience, market demands, and primary work location. The base pay range provided is subject to change and may be modified in the future.

Hybrid Faire employees currently go into the office 3 days per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third flex day of their choosing (Monday, Wednesday, or Friday). Additionally, hybrid in-office roles will have the flexibility to work remotely up to 4 weeks per year. Specific Workplace and Information Technology positions may require onsite attendance 5 days per week as will be indicated in the job posting. 

Why you’ll love working at Faire

Move fast: You'll own meaningful problems that serve customers around the globe with the agency to move fast and see your results clearly.

Equipped to scale: We invest in what matters, including the latest enterprise AI tools, to help you work smarter and get more out of every day.

Best in class: Our team is full of sharp, kind, and generous colleagues who care about their craft and about helping you grow in yours.

Real rewards. Competitive pay, equity, and comprehensive benefits designed to support your life inside and outside of work.

Belonging: We're intentional about building an environment where every Faire employee has equal access to opportunities, growth, and success.

Faire was founded in 2017 by a team of early product and engineering leads from Square. We’re backed by some of the top investors in retail and tech including: Y Combinator, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Forerunner Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, and DST Global. We have headquarters in San Francisco and Kitchener-Waterloo, and a global employee presence across offices in Toronto, London, and New York. To learn more about Faire and our customers, you can read more on our blog.

Faire provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Faire is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Accommodations are available throughout the recruitment process and applicants with a disability may request to be accommodated throughout the recruitment process. We will work with all applicants to accommodate their individual accessibility needs.  To request reasonable accommodation, please fill out our Accommodation Request Form (https://bit.ly/faire-form)

Privacy

For information about the type of personal data Faire collects from applicants, as well as your choices regarding the data collected about you, please visit Faire’s Privacy Notice (https://www.faire.com/privacy)

Source: Faire careers (Greenhouse)

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