Senior Data Engineer - Advertising Engineering

Teamwork makes the stream work.

Roku is changing how the world watches TV

Roku is the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and we've set our sights on powering every television in the world. Roku pioneered streaming to the TV. Our mission is to be the TV streaming platform that connects the entire TV ecosystem. We connect consumers to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers unique capabilities to engage consumers.

From your first day at Roku, you'll make a valuable - and valued - contribution. We're a fast-growing public company where no one is a bystander. We offer you the opportunity to delight millions of TV streamers around the world while gaining meaningful experience across a variety of disciplines.

What does the team work on?

The Data Foundations team plays a critical role in supporting Roku Ads business intelligence and analytics. The team is responsible for developing and managing foundational datasets designed to serve the operational and analytical needs of the broader organisation. The team's mission is carried out through three focus areas: acting as the interface between data producers and consumers, simplifying data architecture, and creating tools in a standardised way.

What is the role?

We are seeking a talented and experienced Senior Software Engineer with a strong background in big data technologies, including Apache Spark and Apache Airflow. This hybrid role bridges software and data engineering, requiring expertise in designing, building, and maintaining scalable systems for both application development and data processing. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and manage robust, production-grade, large-scale data systems. The ideal candidate is a proactive self-starter with a deep understanding of high-scale data services and a commitment to excellence.

How will I use AI at Roku?

At Roku, AI agents do most of the keystroke-level coding. Engineers act as the technical leads for those agents — setting context, planning work, verifying outputs, and recovering when the agent goes off course. If you are excited about working this way, we want to talk to you.

At Roku, we’re embracing AI as a powerful tool to amplify human creativity, accelerate innovation, and deliver better results for our customers. Across teams, we're exploring how AI can enhance our work—and we're only looking for people who are curious, adaptable, and excited to grow alongside these technologies.

What are the responsibilities of the role?

Big Data Engineering:

• Design, develop, and maintain data pipelines and ETL workflows using Apache Spark, Apache Airflow
• Optimise data storage, retrieval, and processing systems to ensure reliability, scalability, and performance
• Develop and fine-tune complex queries and data processing jobs for large-scale datasets
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and improve data systems for minimal downtime and maximum efficiency

Software Development:

• Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code, ensuring adherence to best practices through code reviews

Collaboration & Mentorship:

• Partner with data scientists, software engineers, and other teams to deliver integrated, high-quality solutions
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers, promoting best practices in data engineering

AI-augmented engineering & intelligent data interfaces:

• Apply modern AI-assisted development practices responsibly (for example assisted code review, test generation, and documentation) while maintaining production quality, security, and compliance standards
• Design and evolve semantic search and retrieval over internal metadata (datasets, lineage, dashboards, runbooks): embeddings, indexing, and guardrailed query interfaces where they improve engineer and analyst productivity
• Stay current on responsible AI expectations relevant to advertising data: privacy, PII handling, access control, auditability, and human-in-the-loop review for high-risk automation

What experience would help someone be successful in this role at Roku?

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• 10+ years of experience in software and/or data engineering with expertise in big data technologies such as Apache Spark, Apache Airflow and Trino
• Strong understanding of SOLID principles and distributed systems architecture
• Proven experience in distributed data processing, data warehousing, and real-time data pipelines
• Advanced SQL skills, with expertise in query optimisation for large datasets
• Exceptional problem-solving abilities and the capacity to work independently or collaboratively
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• You have built fluency across the agentic engineering toolchain — coding harnesses like Claude Code or Cursor, MCP servers, custom skills, or agent frameworks. And you can describe projects where you shipped real work with these tools. You know how to drive an agent, verify its output, and ramp on an unfamiliar codebase with an agent helping you
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, and containerisation tools like Docker and Kubernetes (preferred)
• Familiarity with additional big data technologies, including Hadoop, Kafka, and Trino (preferred)
• Strong programming skills in Python, Java, or Scala (preferred)
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform) (preferred)
• Expertise in data modelling, schema design, and data visualisation tools (preferred)

#LI-JB6

What's Roku's approach to hybrid working?

Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams generally work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are generally flexible for remote work, except for employees whose specific roles or assigned office location require five days' a week attendance.

What are some of the benefits?

Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension). Employees are supported in taking time off, in accordance with local leave policies and other personal needs to support their evolving work and life needs. It's important to note that not every benefit is available in all locations or for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your recruiter.

Accommodations

Roku welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments in accordance with applicable law. If you require reasonable accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please direct your inquiries to [email protected].

What should I know about Roku's culture?

Roku is a great place for people who want to work in a fast-paced environment where everyone is focused on the company's success rather than their own. We try to surround ourselves with people who are great at their jobs, who are easy to work with, and who keep their egos in check. We appreciate a sense of humor. We believe a fewer number of very talented folks can do more for less cost than a larger number of less talented teams. We're independent thinkers with big ideas who act boldly, move fast and accomplish extraordinary things through collaboration and trust. In short, at Roku you'll be part of a company that's changing how the world watches TV.

We have a unique culture that we are proud of. We think of ourselves primarily as problem-solvers, which itself is a two-part idea. We come up with the solution, but the solution isn't real until it is built and delivered to the customer. That penchant for action gives us a pragmatic approach to innovation, one that has served us well since 2002.

To learn more about Roku, our global footprint, and how we've grown, visit https://www.weareroku.com/factsheet.

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