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Liftoff

Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform

Job Posted 14 Days Ago Reposted 14 Days Ago
Easy Apply
In-Office or Remote
3 Locations
160K-235K
Senior level
Easy Apply
In-Office or Remote
3 Locations
160K-235K
Senior level
As a backend engineer, you will manage Liftoff's data infrastructure, improving tools and processes for higher efficiency and performance. Responsibilities include building core engines and collaborating with the product team on strategy.
The summary above was generated by AI

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.

The Data Platform team manages Liftoff’s data infrastructure that powers analytics and ML across the company. This role is open to find a strong backend engineer who’d help evolve this infrastructure to support increased scale, faster data access and experimentation.

AS A BACKEND ENGINEER AT LIFTOFF, YOU WILL:

  • Build and have end-to-end ownership of Liftoff's core engines, including distributed data stores, data processing pipelines, and high-performance services.
  • Improve tooling and infrastructure to ship multiple times a day with quantified impact on millions of users and our business's revenue.
  • Partner with the product team to plan short and long-term strategy
  • Contribute to an “engineering excellence” culture through state-of-the-art tools, risk-driven testing, explainable systems, and code review.
  • Join a nimble, consistently excellent, and experienced engineering team.

REQUIREMENTS:

  • Over 8 years of hands-on software engineering experience delivering robust, scalable solutions
  • Deep expertise in core computer science principles—data structures, algorithms, and systems architecture.
  • Exceptional coding skills; proficient across multiple languages with bonus experience in Go.
  • Proven track record working with large-scale data stores and highly distributed systems.
  • Relentlessly high standards for quality and craftsmanship—balanced with a pragmatic drive to ship.
  • Holds a B.S. in Computer Science or equivalent industry-proven experience.
  • Strong background in building and troubleshooting high-performance backend and distributed systems.
  • Natural leader who influences cross-functional teams and drives systemic, organization-wide improvements.
  • Creative and analytical problem-solver—thrives in ambiguity and complexity.
  • Ego-free collaborator who values the best idea, regardless of the source.
  • Self-starter with a strong execution mindset—gets things done without waiting for permission.
  • Brings energy, curiosity, and a healthy sense of fun to the team dynamic.

NICE TO HAVE:

  • Experience in big data engines such as Trino, Spark
  • Experience with Hive metastore, Iceberg or Delta Lake
  • Experience with streaming data
  • Experience with data stores such as Redis

Working at Liftoff is fast-paced, fun, and challenging, and we thrive on innovation. Come join our team and help shape the future of the mobile app ecosystem. If this role sounds interesting to you, we would love to hear from you!  

Location:

This role is eligible for full-time remote work in one of our preferred entities in the Pacific Time Zone: CA, NV, OR, and WA

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, Los Angeles/Orange County, NYC, Seattle: $185,000 - $235,000
  • Olympia, San Diego, Santa Barbara: $170,000 - $215,000
  • All other cities and towns in our approved states: $160,000 - $200,000

#LI-VM1

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 is committed to providing and maintaining a work environment where all employees and candidates are treated with dignity and respect and that is free of bias, prejudice, and harassment. Liftoff is further committed to providing an equal employment opportunity for all employees and candidates for employment free from discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex, gender (including sexual harassment, gender harassment, and harassment due to pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, gender nonconformity, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, ancestry (including association, affiliation, or participation with persons or activities related to national origin, English-proficiency or accent, or immigration status), physical or mental disability, medical condition(s), genetic information of an individual or family member of the individual, marital or domestic partner status, age, veteran or military status, family care status, requesting or taking pregnancy, parental or disability leave, requesting an accommodation, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law, regulation, or ordinance. All such discrimination and harassment is unlawful and will not be tolerated. Liftoff maintains a continued commitment to equal employment opportunity and expects the full cooperation of all personnel.


Liftoff's Compensation Strategy

Liftoff's compensation strategy includes competitive market rate along with equity and benefits and perks that will give our employees what they need to do their best work. In order to ensure teams are compensated fairly for the work performed, we map out specific levels and take into consideration the cost of labor within each location. Liftoff provides employees a total compensation package of competitive market salaries, equity, health and wellness stipends, medical benefits associated with your country of residence. The base compensation will vary based on location, experience as well as level.


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.

Top Skills

Data Processing Pipelines
Delta Lake
Distributed Systems
Hive Metastore
Iceberg
Redis
Spark
Trino

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