Principal Software Engineer, Ads

Reddit is a community of communities. It’s built on shared interests, passion, and trust, and is home to the most open and authentic conversations on the internet. Every day, Reddit users submit, vote, and comment on the topics they care most about. With 100,000+ active communities and approximately 116 million daily active unique visitors, Reddit is one of the internet’s largest sources of information.

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Reddit is the home of conversation on the internet. Our Ads Engineering organization is responsible for the technology that fuels Reddit’s mission, connecting millions of users with brands through authentic, non‑intrusive, and highly effective advertising experiences.

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer (L7) to serve as the technical anchor for our ads product engineering efforts. Reporting directly to the Senior Director of Engineering, you will span a diverse engineering portfolio that includes Ad Formats (the consumer‑facing ad experience),
Ads Manager (the advertiser‑facing operational tool),
Ads Safety (brand suitability and verification), and Solutions Engineering (business integrations).

This is a product‑oriented technical leadership role. You will not just be solving scale problems; you will be solving business problems through architecture. You will define how Reddit builds ads products for the next 3‑5 years, ensuring we can iterate rapidly on new customer experiences while maintaining rigorous technical standards and a cohesive suite of offerings.

• Technical Strategy: Operate across the company, partnering with Consumer Product, Core Infrastructure, and Trust & Safety leadership to align technical roadmaps. Identify company‑level problems and drive solutions that benefit the entire engineering organization.
• Cross‑Domain Architecture: Architect systems that span the entire Reddit stack.
• Organizational Transformation: Identify bottlenecks in how our teams build software—whether technical (legacy debt, slow CI/CD) or organizational (siloed teams, unclear contracts)—and drive systemic changes to resolve them.
• Mentorship: Serve as a beacon of engineering excellence, specifically mentoring Staff (L6) and Senior (L5) engineers. Help them navigate career growth, technical challenges, and influence, raising the bar for the entire ~100‑person organization.
• Full‑Stack Agnosticism: Whether your background is primarily Frontend or Backend, own the end‑to‑end technical solution. Ensure that API designs enable performant UIs and that data models support future product flexibility.

• A Product‑Centric Technologist: Care deeply about the user experience (both redditors and advertisers). Evaluate technical trade‑offs based on user value and business velocity, not just pure engineering elegance.
• An Organizational Influencer: Proven track record of solving problems that require both code changes and people/process changes. Influence VPs and Directors as effectively as you can code.
• Ads Domain Expert: Understand complexities of the ad tech ecosystem—auctions, attribution, privacy (ATT/SKAdNetwork), brand safety, and campaign management.
• Force Multiplier: History of making the teams around you significantly better, faster, and happier.

• Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits and Income Replacement Programs
• 401k with Employer Match
• Global Benefit programs that fit your lifestyle, from workspace to professional development to caregiving support
• Family Planning Support
• Gender‑Affirming Care
• Mental Health & Coaching Benefits
• Flexible Vacation & Paid Volunteer Time Off
• Generous Paid Parental Leave

This job posting may span more than one career level. In addition to base salary, this job is eligible to receive equity in the form of restricted stock units, and depending on the position offered, it may also be eligible to receive a commission. Additionally, Reddit offers a wide range of benefits to U.S.

-based employees, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) program with employer match, generous time off for vacation, and parental leave. To learn more, please visit

To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay…