Principal Engineer in Adtech - Data Science & AI Department

About Teads

Teads is the omnichannel outcomes platform for the open internet, driving full‑funnel results for marketers across premium media. With a focus on meaningful business outcomes for branding and performance objectives, the company ensures value is driven with every media dollar by leveraging predictive AI technology to connect quality media, beautiful brand creative, and context‑driven addressability and measurement. One of the most scaled advertising platforms on the open internet, Teads is directly partnered with more than 10,000 publishers and 20,000 advertisers globally. The company is headquartered in New York, with a global team of nearly 1,800 people in 30+ countries.

About The Opportunity

We are seeking a Principal Engineer for our Data Science & AI department, with deep experience in the advertising industry, to join a team of passionate engineers who build advertising solutions at world scale. We build and operate large‑scale distributed machine learning systems that make 1B predictions per second during real‑time auctions. The Principal position at Teads represents the highest level of seniority on the IC ladder. Principals tackle cross‑functional, strategical, and pivotal initiatives, prioritizing robust engineering choices. They work closely with leadership, product and engineering teams while fostering a culture of excellence.

What will you do?

• Stay on top of the state‑of‑the‑art science and technology of large‑scale advertising systems.
• Focus on models for CTR and CVR, foundation models for recommendation systems, on‑line learning, cold start, embeddings for users, ads, and similar, ad matching and ranking, pacing and optimal bidding, auction design, etc.
• Work with teams of data scientists and machine learning engineers to identify investment opportunities.
• Help teams across the organization implement solutions as an advisor.
• Participate in bringing chosen projects to the production environment.
• Work with product managers to find data‑science and AI projects with the best cost/benefit risk/reward ratios.
• Spend time experimenting with new approaches by yourself.
• Follow industrial and academic research and occasionally publish at conferences.

What will you bring to the team?

• Deep experience of the ad‑tech industry using AI and data science.
• Strong communication skills; able to teach concepts and communicate complex topics to expert audiences.
• Strong problem‑solving skills and ability to align teams on solutions.
• True scientist skills: fast learner, curious, detail‑oriented, rigorous.
• Experience in statistics (e.g., statistical analysis, regression analysis) and/or artificial intelligence (e.g., data mining, machine learning).
• Ability to read scientific articles, analyse critically, and implement appropriately.
• Good taste in the architecture of AI systems.

The team

• The AI department currently consists of 50 people: a mix of data scientists, machine learning and backend engineers.
• Peers have deep experience from on‑line ad systems at Teads and previous companies, maintaining a bleeding‑edge approach to research and technology.
• The department powers outcomes of campaigns with a total yearly turnover of $1.7 B.
• Runs large‑scale prediction and control systems for ad delivery, dealing with millions of live ads and making more than a billion predictions per second, using large on‑line trained models updated every 5 minutes.

Life at Teads

At Teads, we blend creativity, technology, and data to shape the future of media. You’ll work with smart humans, meaningful brands, and cool tools, redefining how advertising works in a world that demands more transparency, better insights, and smarter strategies.

Role at Teads

As a Teadster, you’ll play a critical role in shaping our future success. Teads merged Outbrain and Teads to create a unified omnichannel platform driving results from branding to performance across all screens, including CTV, mobile, and web. We offer a collaborative and forward‑thinking environment that fosters innovation, creative problem‑solving, and continuous learning, along with support, tools, and development opportunities.

Seniority level

• Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

• Full‑time

Job function & industries

Engineering and Information Technology; Advertising Services

Teads is an equal employment opportunity employer and is committed to diversity and inclusion at all stages of recruitment and employment.