Principal Software Engineer - Distributed Systems - FreeWheel

About this role

FreeWheel, a Comcast company, provides comprehensive ad platforms for publishers, advertisers, and media buyers. Powered by premium video content, robust data, and advanced technology, we’re making it easier for buyers and sellers to transact across all screens, data types, and sales channels. As a global company, we have offices in nine countries and can insert advertisements around the world.

Job Summary

The Principal Software Engineer - Ad Tech & Distributed Systems is responsible for leading reliability, performance, and operational excellence of the FreeWheel platforms. This role focuses on designing, operating, and troubleshooting large‑scale distributed systems while owning monitoring, incident response, change management, and capacity planning.

As a technical subject matter expert, the Principal Software Engineer leads and resolves complex issues, automates operational workflows, and partners with engineering, vendors, and client services to deliver scalable, high‑quality solutions. The role operates with limited supervision, applying sound judgment and independently developing solutions for non‑routine and complex challenges.

Job Description

Core Responsibilities

• Own production reliability, availability, latency, and performance of large‑scale, mission‑critical systems
• Design, implement, and operate monitoring, alerting, and observability solutions to ensure system health and rapid detection of issues
• Lead incident response, root cause analysis, and post‑incident reviews to drive long‑term reliability improvements
• Support and ensure stable operations during high‑visibility, time‑sensitive live events and releases
• Drive automation initiatives to reduce operational toil, improve efficiency, and increase system resilience
• Partner with software engineering teams to influence architecture and design decisions with production readiness in mind
• Lead and execute change management, capacity planning, and production readiness revi...