About Sovrn

Every interesting company solves important problems for other people.  Sovrn is a Software and Data business that helps Open Web businesses be and remain independent.  We help them understand their business better, operate more efficiently, and make & keep more money.

  • We believe in the freedom and free-flow of information.
  • We believe the Open Web is the largest source of this information.
  • We believe in helping Open Web businesses be and remain Independent.

Through Software products and Data solutions we help our customers:

  • Understand their business better, so they can make better decisions
  • Operate their business more efficiently, so they can invest in what matters most
  • Make (and Keep) more money, so they control their own destiny

About the Job

As the VP of Engineering for Sovrn's Advertising Exchange, you will lead a team of skilled engineers in both technical expertise and team management. Your primary focus will be on prioritizing short and long-term development goals, optimizing technical operations for efficiency, and driving the evolution of our exchange platform. Embracing a DevOps philosophy, you will oversee a cross-functional team responsible for development, coding, and infrastructure operations. Collaboration with the VP of Exchange Product is crucial to ensure alignment between product and engineering teams, transparent communication, and on-time delivery of key initiatives.

What You'll Be Doing:

  • Lead and manage in-house and outsourced engineering teams
  • Recruit, onboard, and mentor a diverse group of engineers
  • Provide strategic input based on your deep understanding of the ad-tech market to influence prioritization and seize market opportunities
  • Collaborate with product leadership to shape the product roadmap tactically and strategically
  • Monitor and enhance key engineering metrics
  • Foster a culture of strong engineering design, delivery, and quality
  • Identify and prioritize technical debt for retirement
  • Stay informed about emerging technologies and trends in ad-tech
  • Collaborate with other engineering leaders to enhance overall development processes

About You:

  • You thrive on demonstrating value through increased revenue, reduced costs, smoother operations, and high on-time delivery rates
  • You are an empathetic leader, skilled communicator, and adept at managing competing priorities
  • You enjoy innovating in collaboration with others and building relationships across diverse teams
  • You possess strong technical skills in high transactional and distributed systems
  • You have experience in programmatic advertising and cloud operations, particularly with GCP and/or AWS
  • You excel in coaching and mentoring team members
  • Bonus points for experience with Java or other JVM languages, Kafka, NoSQL data stores, and a desire to be an industry thought leader

A successful candidate will have:

  • 10+ years of software development experience
  • 7+ years of adtech-specific development experience, ideally in an SSP/Exchange role
  • 5+ years of engineering management experience, including teams of 10 or more
  • Proficiency in programmatic advertising technologies (e.g., Prebid.js, oRTB)
  • Experience with Kanban, Scrum, and Agile development processes
  • Demonstrated success in driving operational maturity and incident management workflows

Location: Boulder, Colorado #LI-Hybrid

We understand that no candidate is perfectly qualified for any job. Experience comes in different forms; many skills are transferable; and passion goes a long way. Even more important than your resume is a clear demonstration of accountability impact, and the ability to thrive in a fluid and collaborative environment. We expect you to learn new things in this role, and we encourage you to apply if your experience is close to what we're looking for.

Sovrn Core Values: Candid, Customer Empathy, Learning, Scrappy, Second Order Thinking

Equal Opportunity Employer 

Sovrn is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, parental or pregnancy status, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Reasonable accommodations will be made to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and will be provided as requested by candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. 

Recruitment Agencies

Sovrn does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias or Sovrn employees. Sovrn is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Apply for this Job

* Required

resume chosen  
(File types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf)
cover_letter chosen  
(File types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf)


Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Sovrn’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.


Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.


Enter the verification code sent to to confirm you are not a robot, then submit your application.

This application was flagged as potential bot traffic. To resubmit your application, turn off any VPNs, clear the browser's cache and cookies, or try another browser. If you still can't submit it, contact our support team through the help center.