Senior AdTech Architect

Job Description
About Rakuten TVRakuten TV is one of Europe's leading video streaming platforms, offering premium transactional (TVOD) and advertising-based (AVOD/FAST) content to millions of users across more than 40 countries. Backed by Rakuten Group — one of the world's largest internet services companies — we operate a cutting-edge B2B2C model, partnering with leading device manufacturers, broadcasters, and advertising networks to deliver premium entertainment experiences. Headquartered in Barcelona, our international team combines deep expertise in technology, content, sales, and finance to drive continued growth across EMEA. We are a data-driven, fast-paced organization that values intellectual curiosity, ownership, and collaboration.

About the role
We are looking for an AdTech Architect to design and lead the build-out of our programmatic advertising stack. This is a greenfield role — there is no existing architecture to inherit. You will report directly to the CPO and own both the technical strategy and the day‑to‑day execution of our programmatic capabilities. The scope goes beyond platform design. You will be a key voice in shaping how Rakuten TV approaches advertising as a business — which demand channels to prioritise, how to position our ad product in the market, and where the organisation should invest next. A significant part of this role is cross‑functional. You will partner with commercial and ad operations teams on yield strategy, translate revenue requirements into architectural decisions, and represent the engineering side of AdTech in conversations with external partners and senior leadership. We are not looking for someone to build a system in isolation — we are looking for someone who understands why it needs to work commercially.
What you will be responsible forPlatform architecture design and own the end‑to‑end architecture of our programmatic stack: bid handling, auction logic, CTV ad delivery, and the impression and measurement pipeline. You will make the foundational decisions that determine what this platform can and cannot do at scale.
Build vs buyYou will own the strategic evaluation of which parts of the stack we build in-house and which we procure or license. We expect you to bring a clear point of view and the experience to back it.
Advertising strategyWorking with the CPO and commercial leadership, you will contribute to the organisation's overall advertising strategy: how programmatic fits within our revenue model, which standards and integrations to lead on, how our ad product evolves, and what capabilities differentiate us in the market.
Standards and complianceSet the technical direction for IAB standards adoption, consent chain management across all surfaces, and advertiser measurement. Own technical relationships with SSPs, DSPs, and measurement partners.
Team leadershipLead a small, focused team — PM, AdTech Specialist, AdTech Engineer — with a hands‑on approach. You will remain technically active while growing the people around you. As the team scales, this role is expected to evolve and you will help define what that structure looks like.
What we are looking forExperience 8–12 years in AdTech, with a significant portion in programmatic and CTVYou have owned the design of an RTB or bid management system end‑to‑end, not just contributed to oneYou have made or meaningfully influenced build‑vs‑buy decisions on critical stack components and can demonstrate the reasoning behind themYou are comfortable in commercial conversations — floor pricing, yield trade‑offs, DSP relationships — and can connect those back to technical decisionsBackground in a broadcaster, streaming platform, SSP, DSP, or ad technology vendorTechnical (must-have)OpenRTB 2.x / 3.0: bid request and response design, auction mechanics, deal types (PMP, PG)VAST / VMAP / SCTE-35: creative compliance, trafficking workflows, and live stream ad break signallingCTV ad integration: client‑side and server‑side ad insertion, ad measurement SDKs and third‑party verification frameworksReal‑time event streaming and low‑latency system design: experience building impression and event pipelines at scale, and designing systems that operate under strict real‑time constraintsFirst‑party audience data architecture: identity resolution across device, email and behavioural signals (UID2, ID5 or equivalent) and activation in programmatic buyingDomain knowledge SSP and DSP ecosystem, programmatic economics, PMP and PG structuresYield management: CPM floors, fill rate, eCPM optimisationEuropean compliance: GDPR, TCF 2.x, consent chain across surfacesBroadcaster or streaming audience measurement frameworksNice to haveExperience implementing direct DSP integrationsCleanroom data collaboration (AWS Clean Rooms, LiveRamp Safe Haven or equivalent)Translating audience signals into IAB‑compatible segments for programmatic targetingFamiliarity with AI‑native buying channels and agent‑based transaction protocols (MCP or equivalent) as an emergin