SWE5 on Netflix's broader Ads Engineering org spanning ad serving, identity, measurement, and campaign management

This is a Software Engineer 5 opening for Netflix's Ads Engineering org, a broad umbrella covering ad serving, identity & audiences, creatives, inventory & forecasting, campaign management, media planning, measurement, reporting, and finance — with the JD explicitly spotlighting over a dozen sub-teams (including a new Live Ads Management team for real-time/live-event advertising). Candidates should have grounded domain experience in at least one of these ads sub-areas plus comfort setting technical direction; the $388K-$558K band and SWE5 title point to a senior IC bar with architectural influence expected.

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What this interview tests

Deep domain experience in one ads sub-area (serving, identity/audiences, creatives, inventory/forecasting, campaign management, measurement, or finance)
General advertising marketplace/programmatic landscape knowledge
A/B testing and experimentation practices
Setting technical direction and making architectural decisions across teams
Brand safety and member-experience-aware ad delivery
Cross-functional influence given the org's tightly interlocking sub-teams

Common question themes

Go deep on a system you built in your strongest ads domain (e.g., ad serving, identity/audience, or measurement) and its scaling challenges

How would you design a component of Netflix's ad system that touches multiple adjacent teams (e.g., campaign management feeding into ad serving and measurement)

Tell me about a time you set the technical direction for a project and had to influence cross-functional partners

How do you balance advertiser brand-safety requirements with member viewing experience

Describe your experience with A/B testing/experimentation in a production ads or content system

How candidates describe it

Real Software Engineer 5 - Ads Engineering interview stories — retold from candidates' public write-ups, with sources.

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