---
title: 'Software Engineer, Ads Platform at NewsBreak'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ads-platform-newsbreak-mountain-view-california-hzng2kw0acag'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Software Engineer, Ads Platform at NewsBreak

- **Company:** NewsBreak
- **Location:** Mountain View California, United States
- **Compensation:** $155k–$260k
- **Posted:** 2026-09-09
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/newsbreak/jobs/4712174006

## Job description

## About NewsBreak

Founded in 2015, NewsBreak is the Content Intelligence platform shaping the future content economy. With over 40 million monthly active users, our flagship platform delivers highly personalized local news and information powered by advanced AI, recommendation systems, and adtech.

Recognized by Fast Company as #32 on the Top Workplaces for Innovators, we're proud to be Great Place to Work® certified and home to a dynamic team of technologists, product innovators, and business leaders who are passionate about solving meaningful challenges at scale.

Together, we reached unicorn status in 2021, and we remain committed to continuing this high-growth trajectory with the right team to fulfill our mission: building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence.

If you’re inspired to dream big, innovate fast, and make a difference, we’d love to hear from you! For more information, visit [www.newsbreak.com/about](http://www.newsbreak.com/about)

## About the role

Own and scale the backend of NewsBreak's advertising platform end to end — from the advertiser-facing Ad Manager through the real-time bidding flow that monetizes our traffic — and act as a primary builder for our expansion into external demand and external supply.

This is a senior, high-ownership role on a small team. You will be one of a handful of people who can take an ads initiative from problem statement through production revenue, and you are expected to raise the technical bar and the operational resilience of the systems you touch, not just add throughput to them.

## Responsibilities

Bidding flow (traffic side): own the serving path end to end — ad request handling, candidate retrieval, auction server, bid server, and the event/attribution pipeline — under high-QPS, low-latency constraints.

Auction optimization: improve yield across both our own auction and external auctions — floor pricing, timeout and latency budgets, network/exchange migrations — with results measured on realized CPM rather than on shipped features.

Ad Manager (advertiser side): design, build, and operate campaign and line-item modeling, targeting, budget and pacing control, spend accounting and billing integrity, and advertiser-facing APIs and workflows.

DSP build-out: implement and scale outbound bidding into external exchanges: OpenRTB integrations with SSPs/exchanges, creative delivery, audience matching, bid pricing and shading, budget/QPS protection, and post-bid reconciliation.

Defend the revenue path: build real-time metrics, alerting, and discrepancy detection for the money path, and diagnose revenue movements quickly when they happen.

Collaborate and de-risk: partner with product, algorithm/modeling, SRE, and ad ops; lead design reviews; document and share ownership so no critical ads subsystem depends on one person.

Ad quality where it meets serving: support creative and landing-page policy enforcement, fraud/cloaking detection, and invalid-traffic signals as they intersect the serving path.

## Requirements

Required

5+ years of backend engineering experience building and operating distributed, high-QPS, low-latency production services (Java, Go, C++, or similar).

Strong system design fundamentals: service decomposition, data modeling, caching (e.g., Redis), streaming/messaging (e.g., Kafka), analytical query engines (e.g., ClickHouse, Trino, Spark), and cloud infrastructure (AWS).

Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of a revenue-critical or transaction-critical system, including correctness of money — accounting, idempotency, reconciliation — and production operational responsibility.

Comfort with ambiguity and full ownership on a small team: able to go from a business problem to a shipped, measured system without a spec handed down.

Strong written communication and cross-functional collaboration; effective working with AI-assisted development workflows.

## Preferred

Direct advertising-domain experience — DSP, SSP, ad exchange, or ad server — including OpenRTB, real-time auctions, header bidding, budget pacing, bid shading, and attribution/conversion measurement.

Experience integrating with Google Ad Manager / Ad Exchange, Meta or Google ad SDKs, or major mobile exchanges.

Experience integrating ML model serving (CTR/CVR prediction, ranking) into an auction under latency constraints.

Experience with brand safety, ad fraud, or invalid-traffic detection. The US base salary range for this full-time position is listed below. Pay may vary based on a number of factors including job-related skills, level, experience, geographic location and relevant education or training. At NewsBreak, we design our overall rewards package to attract top talents. Depending on the position, the role may also be eligible for discretionary bonus and options. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process. Annual Base Pay Range $155,000—$260,000 USD

[CPRA Privacy Notice for California Candidates](https://docs.google.com/document/d/15apsJLgHq1p5NJR3fzFmdctKX4QIzzf2/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110601223912453011659&rtpof=true&sd=true)

## About NewsBreak

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: NewsBreak is a Content Intelligence platform that delivers hyper-local news and information to over 40 million monthly active users across the U.S. using advanced AI, recommendation systems, and adtech.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, reached unicorn status in 2021)
- **Headquarters**: Mountain View, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2015
- **Founders**: Jeff Zheng (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Content Intelligence, Local News & Information, AI-Powered Recommendation Systems, Advertising Technology (Adtech)
- **Target customers**: B2C (consumers seeking local news), B2B (publishers, content creators, local businesses), and Enterprise (advertisers and agencies)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: Building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence, helping people live safer, more vibrant, and more truly connected lives by connecting and empowering local users, local content creators, and local businesses at scale.

## Products & Services
- **NewsBreak Platform**: A flagship mobile app and website that delivers personalized local news and information from over 10,000 sources to more than 40 million monthly active users across the U.S.
- **NBot**: An AI-powered agentic assistant that lets users personalize any digital engine (apps, platforms, websites) using natural language.
- **Publishing Platform (mp.newsbreakapp.com)**: B2B tools that help publishers, content creators, and local businesses engage audiences with monetization and audience-reach solutions.
- **Creator Program**: A platform for local content creators to distribute their work and monetize their audience.
- **Adtech & Monetization Solutions**: Targeted advertising solutions for local businesses, helping them connect with local audiences.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Unicorn status (valuation over $1 billion) achieved in 2021. Latest valuation not publicly disclosed.
- **Total Funding**: $115 million in Series C funding led by Francisco Partners (2021). Total funding amount not fully disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: 40+ million monthly active users (MAU)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Francisco Partners (lead investor in Series C)
- **Growth Signals**: Reached unicorn status in 2021; recognized by Fast Company as #32 on the Top Workplaces for Innovators (2025); Great Place to Work® certified; growing workforce with active hiring across engineering, product, and business roles.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Content Intelligence Infrastructure**: A proprietary AI-powered platform that personalizes local news and information at scale, creating a unique data moat.
- **Hyper-Local Focus**: Serves over 10,000 local news sources, filling a critical gap in the declining local news market.
- **Large, Engaged User Base**: 40+ million MAU provides a strong network effect for both content creators and advertisers.
- **Advanced AI & Recommendation Systems**: Deep expertise in NLP, recommendation algorithms, and agentic AI (NBot) differentiates them from traditional news aggregators.
- **B2B & B2C Dual Model**: Generates revenue from both consumers (via engagement) and businesses (via advertising and publishing tools).

## Strategic Focus
- **Content Intelligence Leadership**: Doubling down on AI to build the "infrastructure layer" for content intelligence, enabling smarter connections between people, businesses, and information.
- **AI-Powered Innovation**: Continued development of agentic AI (NBot), LLM post-training, and AI-driven advertising agents to enhance personalization and monetization.
- **Local Market Dominance**: Expanding the network of local publishers, creators, and businesses to strengthen the hyper-local ecosystem.
- **Monetization Growth**: Scaling adtech and B2B tools to increase revenue from both SMBs and enterprise advertisers.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture of Innovation**: Recognized by Fast Company as one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators (2025), with a culture that values curiosity, autonomy, and collaboration. Employees work in decentralized, autonomous teams with real ownership over product areas.
- **High-Growth Environment**: A unicorn company on a high-growth trajectory, offering accelerated professional growth for those who "think big, move fast, and create real-world impact."
- **Great Place to Work® Certified**: 92% of employees are proud to be making a difference, 94% felt welcomed when they joined, and 84% say it's a great place to work (compared to 57% at a typical U.S. company).
- **Benefits**: Competitive healthcare benefits (flexible medical care, premium dental/vision), 401(k) matching, and a focus on mental, physical, and financial well-being.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: HQ is in Mountain View, CA, with a presence in New York and Bellevue, WA. Job postings list specific locations, suggesting a hybrid or on-site model for most roles.
- **Engineering Culture**: Emphasis on ML, AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. Teams work with cutting-edge tech (LLMs, agentic AI, NLP) and are encouraged to pursue applied research, collaborate with academic institutions, and attend industry events.

## Sources
1. [NewsBreak Careers Page](https://careers.newsbreak.com/)
2. [NewsBreak Job Board (Greenhouse)](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/newsbreak)
3. [NewsBreak LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/newsbreak)
4. [PRNewswire - Fast Company Best Workplaces for Innovators 2025](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/newsbreak-recognized-among-the-worlds-best-workplaces-for-innovators-by-fast-company-302552097.html)
5. [Great Place to Work - NewsBreak Profile](https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7088585)

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