* This position is primarily remote/work from home, with occasional team meetings in Austin, TX.
WHO WE ARE
Headquartered in sunny Austin, TX with a growing footprint in the heart of NYC, KERV.ai is an award-winning, boundary-pushing company that's transforming how content and commerce converge in media.
As the leader in AI-powered video analysis and monetization, our patented technology breaks video down frame by frame, making every object, product, or moment instantly interactive, measurable, and shoppable. We serve as the connective tissue between creative, commerce, and data, helping the world’s top brands and publishers turn video into a truly dynamic and rewarding experience for their audiences.
At KERV.ai, we’re not just redefining how people engage with media. We’re building the future of it. If you’re looking to work at the intersection of innovation, storytelling, and smart technology with a team that’s shaping what’s next in media, we’d love to meet you.
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
As a Software Engineer on KERV’s Tag Distribution team, you’ll be one of the first engineers dedicated to a new team focused on our ad tag infrastructure — the systems responsible for serving and optimizing ad tags to publishers and programmatic platforms globally.
This is a backend and AWS-heavy role with unique challenges in performance, reliability, and international distribution. You’ll work across a mix of architectures — from a persistent Node.js API that assembles and serves VAST ad tags, to a growing set of serverless microservices on AWS handling dynamic destinations, geo-targeted redirects, and tag validation. The infrastructure spans DynamoDB Global Tables replicated across multiple U.S. regions, edge computing for redirect flows, and caching layers that support high-throughput ad delivery. You’ll also help lead the migration and refactoring of our core VAST API from our legacy monolith into a purpose-built tag server, giving you a direct hand in shaping the long-term architecture of this critical system.
If you’re energized by dynamic, high-performing systems, want to go deep on backend and cloud infrastructure, and are excited about helping build a team’s foundation rather than joining one that’s already built — this is for you.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Technologies you will use: JavaScript/Node.js (Koa, Express), AWS (Lambda, CloudFront, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, EventBridge), Serverless Framework, MySQL, Git
- Build and maintain KERV’s ad tag distribution services — a persistent Node.js backend that assembles and serves VAST ad tags to publishers and programmatic platforms at scale
- Develop and operate serverless microservices that support dynamic ad serving, dynamic creative optimization, geo-targeted redirects, and tag validation workflows
- Lead the migration and refactoring of core VAST API functionality from our legacy monolith into our dedicated tag server architecture
- Optimize for performance and reliability across caching layers, proxy services, and multi-region data replication (DynamoDB Global Tables)
- Help harden production systems: improve observability (CloudWatch, logging), error handling, alerting, and cost/performance tuning for globally distributed infrastructure
- Contribute to architectural decisions, weighing long-term scalability against short-term delivery needs
- Write clean, well-tested code that holds up under real-time ad traffic — reliability matters when your systems are serving live impressions at scale
- Participate in team code reviews, sharing knowledge and learning from others
- Participate in sprint planning, ensuring that realistic plans are set forth and delivered
- Communicate effectively within the engineering team and with non-technical teams
- Have the discipline to shift between establishing new features and maintaining legacy features based on the needs of the business
WHAT YOU’LL BRING
- 3–7+ years of professional experience developing backend or full-stack web applications
- Strong proficiency in JavaScript/Node.js in production environments
- Hands-on experience with AWS services — particularly Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, CloudFront, or comparable cloud infrastructure
- Experience building or operating systems that serve high volumes of traffic with demanding performance requirements
- Familiarity with serverless architectures and event-driven design patterns
- Comfort working with and refactoring legacy codebases — you see migration work as an opportunity, not a chore
- Ownership mindset — as one of the first engineers on this team, you’ll take responsibility for systems end-to-end, propose tradeoffs, and collaborate closely with engineering leadership and a technical PM
- Strong asynchronous communication skills, ensuring efficient and effective collaboration with remote team members
- Experience with or strong interest in AI-driven prompt engineering and AI coding assistants
WHAT WE’D CONSIDER A BONUS
- Digital advertising experience, particularly with ad serving, tag management, VAST, SIMID, OpenRTB, or programmatic platforms (strongly preferred)
- Experience with edge computing (Lambda@Edge, CloudFront Functions, or equivalent CDN-level compute)
- Experience with DynamoDB Global Tables or multi-region database replication
- Experience with XML parsing and transformation in high-throughput contexts
- Background in API design and operation (REST, HTTP services, idempotency, rate limiting)
- Experience with caching strategies at the application and CDN layers
- Experience with the Serverless Framework or similar IaC tools
- Familiarity with geo-targeting, IP-based routing, or international ad delivery
- Experience developing an enterprise or SaaS product
- Previous experience in a startup environment
WHO YOU ARE
- Collaborative: Works well with cross-functional partners — engineering leadership, product, and operations — even as one of a team’s first dedicated engineers
- Adaptable: Moves fast without compromising on quality, security, or reliability; flexible across multiple projects and changing requirements
- Proactive Communicator: Shares ideas, updates, and feedback clearly, both synchronously and asynchronously
- Self Motivated: Takes ownership of tasks, follows through on commitments, needs little oversight to drive day-to-day work
- Growth Mindset: Curious, consistent drive to learn, open to feedback, continuously improving, and embracing challenges
WHY YOU’LL LOVE WORKING AT KERV
- We are a team of talented, kind people, driven by innovation.
- We put the human first. Whether our employee, client, partner, or community; we genuinely care about your well-being and will do whatever we can to support it.
- We are relentless in our pursuit of innovation, remaining flexible and open to change, remaining scrappy and collaborative in pursuit of common goals.
- We balance our dedication to success with the accountability to deliver, trusting our expertise, while verifying our thinking at every step.
- We advocate for the growth and success of our people and the communities in which they belong to through transparent & clear communication, championing a culture in which everyone has a voice and contributes to our success, and a socially aware approach to everything we touch.
- We aim to cultivate a work environment where each person, no matter the identities they hold, not only feels safe, seen, and heard, but also celebrated.
- We offer…
- Unlimited PTO with a healthy culture of taking time off to recharge so you can bring your best self to work
- Competitive compensation packages
- Comprehensive health and wellness benefits including modern support services via Bennie, such as a custom app and healthcare concierge to support a simplified benefits experience for our staff
- Mental Health Support via Samata Health paid 100% by KERV
- 401K with company match and 100% vesting on day 1
- Unlimited referral bonuses
- Flexible working schedules with remote and hybrid opportunities
- Fitness Reimbursement Program
- “Moments that Matter” program, centered around our heart-centered value, which celebrates and supports employees through life’s biggest wins, transitions, and challenges — because at KERV, we show up for each other beyond just the work.
KERV provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. KERV participates in E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all new hires.
