Senior Software Engineer - Identity

Samba is a media intelligence company. We know what the world is watching, reading, and thinking about — in real time, at scale, across every screen. Our data exists with the consent of over a billion people, organized into the most complete picture of consumer attention ever built. The biggest brands in the world use that picture to make smarter decisions. We think it’s the most interesting data asset on the planet, because it’s the most culturally relevant.

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Identity team in Amsterdam. The Identity team builds and operates the core systems that power Samba TV’s cross-device identity resolution, data onboarding, and distribution capabilities, the foundational layer connecting data to advertisers, agencies, data partners, and internal product teams.

You will design, build, and operate production-grade data engineering systems that ingest, transform, and deliver identity-linked data at scale.

You bring 8+ years of experience, take deep ownership of complex platform components, and work collaboratively with other senior engineers to align on technical direction. You are a trusted voice in design and architecture discussions, an active mentor, and a strong partner to adjacent teams.

• Design, build, and maintain reliable data pipelines for ingestion, transformation, and distribution of identity-linked data, processing large volumes efficiently in production.
• Develop ETL/ELT workflows using distributed computing frameworks on cloud infrastructure, applying strong engineering judgment to architectural and implementation decisions within your scope.
• Design and build API-first services that expose processed identity data to internal teams and external consumers, with a focus on reliability, clear contracts, and ease of integration.
• Implement data quality validation, monitoring, and observability for the components you own, ensuring reliability and correctness at scale.
• Contribute to platform-grade, reusable components that enable downstream teams and support self-service consumption of Identity capabilities.
• Take end-to-end ownership of key components within identity resolution systems and drive their reliability, scalability, and evolution.
• Design and implement privacy-compliant data handling practices, applying GDPR, CCPA, and Samba’s data governance policies, including support for clean room and privacy-preserving data collaboration workflows.
• Engage cross-functional stakeholders, product, data science, and partner teams, to ensure the systems you build support all downstream use cases.
• Drive technical design for components within your scope, producing clear design documents, actively contributing to architecture discussions, and aligning the team on well-reasoned solutions.
• Conduct rigorous code reviews and uphold high standards for code quality, testability, and maintainability.
• Mentor engineers on the team through structured feedback, pairing, and design review.
• Collaborate across adjacent teams, understanding their constraints and requirements, and advocating for shared standards where applicable.
• Own the reliability of your components end-to-end, monitor their health, respond to incidents, and follow through on post-mortem improvements with rigor.
• Participate in on-call rotations and contribute actively to improving operational practices across the team.
• Drive improvements to CI/CD pipelines, deployment processes, and testing coverage for your team’s systems.

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong focus on data engineering, backend systems, or distributed data infrastructure.
• Proficient in Python and SQL; comfortable with JavaScript in full-stack or API contexts.
• Strong hands-on experience with distributed processing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Databricks, or equivalent) working with large-scale datasets in production.
• Practical experience with cloud platforms (AWS and/or GCP) and their core data services.
• Hands-on experience with workflow orchestration tools (Apache Airflow, dbt, Prefect, or equivalent). Strong familiarity with data warehousing and lakehouse technologies, including Snowflake.
• Solid understanding of data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) and practical experience building compliant systems.
• Familiarity with platform-thinking and API-first service design, building components that are reusable and consumable by downstream teams. A clear communicator and cross-functional collaborator, able to articulate technical decisions, engage constructively in design reviews, and navigate complex stakeholder relationships outside your immediate team.
• An active mentor, you invest in others, give direct feedback, and care about raising the bar for the team as a whole.

• Experience with streaming data processing frameworks (e.g., Kafka, Flink, Spark Streaming, or equivalent).
• Experience incorporating AI and machine learning capabilities into production data workflows.
• Exposure to ad tech, identity resolution, data licensing, or digital media, familiarity with concepts such as device graphs, audience segmentation, or Measurement.

#LI-WD1

Base salary is just one component of Samba total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may include bonuses, short-term incentives, and long-term incentives. In addition, Samba provides health insurance, wellness offerings, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO), and other employee benefits.

Samba is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We strive to empower connection with one another, reflect the communities we serve, and tackle meaningful projects that make a real impact.

Samba may collect personal information directly from you, as a job applicant, Samba may also receive personal information from third parties, for example, in connection with a background, employment or reference check, in accordance with the applicable law. For further details, please see Samba’s Applicant Privacy Policy. For residents of the EU, Samba Inc. Is the data controller.