Liftoff

Design and implement scalable data lake infrastructure and ML model training platforms. | 6+ years experience with strong Python and Golang coding skills and ML platform experience preferred. | Liftoff is a leading AI-powered performance marketing platform for the mobile app economy. Our end-to-end technology stack helps app marketers acquire and retain high-value users, while enabling publishers to maximize revenue across programmatic and direct demand. Liftoff’s solutions, including Accelerate, Direct, Monetize, Intelligence, and Vungle Exchange, support over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries in sectors such as gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, and entertainment. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Liftoff has a diverse, global presence. About the team: With our success over the past 10 years, we are ready to move beyond our current technologies and build the next generation ML Platform to align with our current business needs as we continue to grow. Currently using a custom setup, we handle 1.5 billion ML inferences per second, every day. We are now building a new ML platform to support neural networks at that scale to increase the intelligence of our models. As a Software Engineer on the Machine Learning Data Platform team at Liftoff, you will: Work with an experienced team of ML, Software, and Infrastructure Engineers that are building the ML platform for Liftoff Design, engineer & implement reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient systems to support data lake infrastructure, dataset generation, model training infrastructure, analytics, reporting and monitoring infrastructure Deliver business results by enabling next generation ML models and technologies Utilize vendor-based products (AWS, Weight & Biases, etc.), open-source technologies (PyTorch, PySpark, Trino, Hive, Iceberg, Clickhouse, etc.) and in-house tooling Desired qualities and experience: Very strong coding ability in Python and Golang. Strong core CS fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, architecting systems) 6+ years of industry experience Experience with Spark is a plus. Experience working in a high-growth startup atmosphere is a plus Experience building Machine Learning tooling or platforms, in particular when applied to large-scale problems, is a big plus A passion for quality and excellence, and the ability to temper it when necessary to ship Location: This role is eligible for hybrid work, 2 days per week in one of our Bay Area offices in Redwood City or San Francisco. Travel Expectations: We offer several opportunities for in-person team gatherings, including but not limited to project meetings, regional meetups, and company-wide events. We expect our employees to attend these gatherings at least once per quarter. These gatherings provide essential opportunities for collaboration, communication, and team building. Compensation: Liftoff offers all employees a full compensation package that includes equity and health/vision/dental benefits associated with your country of residence. Base compensation will vary based on the candidate's location and experience. The following are our base salary ranges for this role: SF Bay Area: $180,000 - $230,000 #LI-CM1 Liftoff offers a fast-paced, collaborative, and innovative work environment where employees are empowered to grow and make an impact. We’re shaping the future of the mobile app ecosystem—join us and help accelerate what’s next. Liftoff’s compensation strategy includes competitive salaries, equity, and benefits designed to support employee well-being and performance. We benchmark compensation based on role, level, and location to ensure fairness and market alignment. Benefits may include medical coverage, wellness stipends, and additional perks based on your country of residence. Liftoff is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Agency and Third Party Recruiter Notice: Liftoff does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third-party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to our hiring managers or Recruiting Team. All candidates must be submitted via our Applicant Tracking System by approved Liftoff vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission by our Recruiting Team for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless such a request has been made by the Liftoff Recruiting Team and such a candidate was submitted to the Liftoff Recruiting Team via our Applicant Tracking System.

Architect, build, and maintain large-scale distributed systems and infrastructure with a focus on reliability, automation, and developer tooling. | Bachelor's degree with 5+ years experience, strong system design and programming skills, Kubernetes and container experience, Infrastructure as Code, monitoring, and collaboration skills. | Liftoff is a leading AI-powered performance marketing platform for the mobile app economy. Our end-to-end technology stack helps app marketers acquire and retain high-value users, while enabling publishers to maximize revenue across programmatic and direct demand. Liftoff’s solutions, including Accelerate, Direct, Monetize, Intelligence, and Vungle Exchange, support over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries in sectors such as gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, and entertainment. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Liftoff has a diverse, global presence. About our Production Engineering Team: Liftoff’s Production Engineering team plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of our product delivery. You'll immerse yourself in a data-rich environment where your expertise will directly influence the enhancement of developer workflows, ensuring that every product and feature we release is not only reliable and efficient but also resonates with scale. It's more than just a job; it's about making a tangible impact in a team that values collaboration and innovation without the noise of industry buzzwords. Responsibilities Take end-to-end ownership of Liftoff's Supply infrastructure. Architect, build, and maintain the reliability of large-scale, high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems serving millions of requests per second. Improve tooling and infrastructure to enable shipping multiple times a day, with a quantified impact on millions of users and our business revenue. Contribute to an “engineering excellence” culture through state-of-the-art tools, risk-driven testing, explainable systems, and code reviews. Become an expert in cutting-edge open-source technologies (Kubernetes, Kafka, HAProxy, ArgoCD, etc.) that maximize software development velocity. Share L1 on-call rotation with other members of the Production Engineering team for systems owned and managed by the team. Ensure minimal Day-2 operations by focusing on automation, efficient management, and proactive issue resolution. Mentor and share knowledge with other team members. Requirements Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with 5+ years of professional experience, or Master’s degree in Computer Science with 3+ years of professional experience, or equivalent experience. A strong commitment to quality and perfection, with the ability to balance these values with the need to ship products on time. Strong understanding of computer architectures, system design principles, data structures, and algorithms. Professional experience in tackling complex programming challenges, preferably but not restricted to Golang. Professional experience with Kubernetes and containerized workloads, including: Bootstrapping Kubernetes infrastructure Writing tooling for the Kubernetes ecosystem Experience using Infrastructure as Code to manage and provision resources. Proven experience in building monitoring solutions for modern microservice architectures. Knowledge of profiling and debugging distributed microservices. Excellent team communication and collaboration skills. Passionate about supporting colleagues and committed to the team’s success. Fluent in English, with strong proficiency in both written and spoken communication. Bonus Previous experience in leading a team. Proven experience in SRE, DevOps, or Platform Engineering roles. Experience with multi-cloud computing environments (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.). Proficient in working with SQL/NoSQL databases (e.g., Postgres, Redis, RocksDB). Experience with data lake, lakehouse, and data warehouse architectures Familiarity with messaging systems (e.g., RabbitMQ, Kafka, Spark). Experience in building CI/CD pipelines for large distributed systems or backend architectures, preferably within a Kubernetes environment. Ability to design and optimize infrastructure to support machine learning workflows, including large language models (LLMs), ensuring scalable training, inference, and deployment pipelines. Experience in building self-serve platforms and a strong track record in driving shift-left adoption. In-depth understanding of various security standards, protocols, and their implementation details. Fluency in Mandarin is a plus. Liftoff offers all employees a full compensation package that includes equity and health/vision/dental benefits associated with your country of residence. Base compensation will vary based on candidate location and experience. The following are our base salary ranges for this role: SF Bay Area, NYC, Los Angeles/Orange County, Seattle: $155,000 - $205,000 Austin, Boston, Rest of California (including San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc): $140,000 - $188,000 All other cities and towns in our approved states: $130,000 - $176,000 #LI-JH1 We use Covey as part of our hiring and / or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT. As part of the evaluation process we provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound on January 22, 2024. Please see the independent bias audit report covering our use of Covey here. Liftoff offers a fast-paced, collaborative, and innovative work environment where employees are empowered to grow and make an impact. We’re shaping the future of the mobile app ecosystem—join us and help accelerate what’s next. Liftoff’s compensation strategy includes competitive salaries, equity, and benefits designed to support employee well-being and performance. We benchmark compensation based on role, level, and location to ensure fairness and market alignment. Benefits may include medical coverage, wellness stipends, and additional perks based on your country of residence. Liftoff is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Agency and Third Party Recruiter Notice: Liftoff does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third-party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to our hiring managers or Recruiting Team. All candidates must be submitted via our Applicant Tracking System by approved Liftoff vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission by our Recruiting Team for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless such a request has been made by the Liftoff Recruiting Team and such a candidate was submitted to the Liftoff Recruiting Team via our Applicant Tracking System.