Engineering Manager II, Creatives

Role details

StackAdapt is the leading technology company that empowers marketers to reach, engage, and convert audiences with precision. With 465 billion automated optimizations per second, the AI-powered StackAdapt Marketing Platform seamlessly connects brand and performance marketing to drive measurable results across the entire customer journey. The most forward-thinking marketers choose StackAdapt to orchestrate high-impact campaigns across programmatic advertising and marketing channels. About the Team: The Creative team manages all aspects of the creatives pipeline at StackAdapt, from serving creatives on bid requests to dynamic creative selection, creative approval and audit workflows, and applying complex business rules. We interact with several downstream services and stakeholders, including Bidding, Data Science, and Product. Our systems are built in Golang and handle millions of requests per second with an SLA of 100ms. We leverage AWS, Kubernetes, Kafka, Aerospike, and other modern tools and databases. We are a software services team, not a data engineering team. Watch our talk at Amazon Tech Talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRqu-a4gPuU StackAdapt is a Remote First company; we are open to candidates located anywhere in Canada or the United States for this position. What You'll Be Doing: Lead a team of backend engineers who own the creative pipeline, supporting their day-to-day execution and removing blockers so the team ships reliably. Execute on roadmap milestones defined with Product and senior engineering leadership; break initiatives down into well-scoped sprints and track delivery, flagging risks and delays to stakeholders early. Run the team's agile rituals (stand-ups, planning, retros) and continuously monitor sprint health — velocity, workload balance — to prevent burnout and keep commitments realistic. Conduct regular 1:1s, give timely tactical feedback, build psychological safety, and support engineers in executing on their growth plans; surface performance concerns to leadership early. Stay close to the technology: participate in code reviews and architecture discussions, uphold coding and testing standards, and help the team make sound, scalable component-level design decisions. Coordinate with peer teams (Bidding, Data Science, Product) on immediate cross-team dependencies affecting creative serving and selection. Participate in incident resolution and support the team's on-call rotation; ensure production issues are followed through to root cause. Participate in interviews and provide hiring feedback; help onboard new team members smoothly. Encourage adoption of approved AI tooling (code generation, debugging, documentation) to raise team velocity. Model StackAdapt's values in daily work and foster a culture of trust, transparency, and technical excellence. What You'll Bring to the Table Experience in adtech or martech, experience with (and not exclusively to) creative serving in a programmatic advertising space, understanding of different advertising channels and how they work together to serve creatives to users. Experience with Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO), and ad markup and rendering. 1+ years of people management experience, or 2+ years as a tech lead / mentor for a backend team, with a desire to grow into a career manager. 5+ years of backend development experience in distributed systems, microservices, and high-throughput, low-latency services. Proficiency in at least one backend language (Golang preferred; Java, Kotlin, C++, Rust, or similar). A hands-on leadership style — comfortable reviewing code, debating architecture, and diving into production incidents alongside the team. Strong grasp of computer science fundamentals, data structures, and algorithms. Working knowledge of modern development methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and a track record of delivering on committed milestones. Clear, transparent communication with both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders (Product, Project Management). Hands-on experience with our stack. Nice to Have: Frontend development experience, understanding of web technologies and how creatives are served and rendered in the browser, and frontend device. Experience operating systems under global compliance and privacy frameworks. The compensation range listed for this role reflects the expected base salary for candidates located in the posting country based on a global rate. It is informed by market data and the approved budget for this position. StackAdapt maintains different compensation ranges for roles across other countries and regions, and final offers will be aligned to the candidate’s current location. We do not ask c andidates about current or prior salary history, and we will not use such information, if volunteered, in setting an offer. This range represents base salary only. Depending on the role, candidates may also be eligible for additional compensation such as annual bonuses, commissions, equity awards, and a comprehensive benefits package. Factors Influencing Final Compensation: The final compensation offer will be determined by a variety of factors, which may include, but are not limited to: the candidate's specific experience, technical skills, knowledge, abilities, and relevant education, licensure, and certifications. Other business factors, such as organizational needs and budget alignment, may also be considered in the final offer. Canada Base Salary Band $196,000 - $269,500 CAD USA Base Salary Band $182,400 - $250,800 USD StackAdapter's Enjoy: Highly competitive salary Retirement/ 401K/ Pension Savings globally Competitive Paid time off packages including birthday's off! Access to a comprehensive mental health care program Health benefits from day one of employment Work from home reimbursements Optional global WeWork membership for those who want a change from their home office and hubs in London and Toronto Robust training and onboarding program Coverage and support of personal development