Software Engineering Manager, Ads Manager

Overview

Instacart’s Ads organization powers approximately $1B in annual ad spend for the world’s largest CPG brands, helping them reach customers with engaging, high-intent experiences across our marketplace. Ads Manager is the web application these advertisers use to plan, launch, and optimize campaigns, manage bids and budgets, and steward their brand presence on Instacart through Brand Pages and our Product Library.

We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead two core Ads Manager teams—Ads Enrichment and Ads Activation—owning a broad portfolio that spans campaign management UI, optimization workflows, reporting, advertiser onboarding, brand presence tools, and new ad product experiences. You will manage two teams totaling 15 engineers, partner closely with Product and Design, and collaborate with sister engineering groups including Ads Data Pipelines, Ads Quality, and Ads Formats. This role sits at the epicenter of Ads at Instacart, with a front-row seat to most new initiatives and the opportunity to drive impact at scale.

If you thrive in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment, enjoy rolling up your sleeves to align stakeholders, and are excited to build advertiser-facing products used by top CPGs, this is a chance to shape the future of Instacart Ads.

About the Job

• Lead two Ads Manager teams (Ads Enrichment and Ads Activation) comprising 15 engineers to deliver high-quality advertiser experiences across campaign management, optimization, reporting, onboarding, and brand presence.


• Own strategy, roadmap, and execution for a broad portfolio of web-based products, balancing long-term bets with near-term impact and iterative delivery.


• Partner with Product, Design, and sister engineering teams (e.g., Ads Data Pipelines, Ads Quality, Ads Formats) to align priorities across multiple ads pillars and ship cohesive end-to-end solutions.


• Drive engineering excellence across code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, and reliability; establish and meet SLAs and operational KPIs for advertiser-facing systems.


• Recruit, develop, and retain top talent; set clear expectations, provide coaching and feedback, and build an inclusive, engaged team culture.


• Collaborate with analytics and data engineering to ensure accurate, timely, and privacy-conscious reporting and measurement for advertisers.


• Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and data governance standards while building scalable APIs and services that integrate with Instacart’s broader Ads ecosystem.


• Communicate progress, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to stakeholders and leadership, making data-informed decisions that drive outcomes for advertisers and Instacart.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating large-scale web applications or platforms.


• 3+ years of engineering management experience leading multiple teams or a team of 10+ engineers, including hiring, performance management, and career development.


• Proven track record shipping B2B or enterprise self-serve products end-to-end (planning, execution, launch, iteration) in partnership with Product and Design.


• Hands-on technical leadership with modern web stacks, including front-end frameworks (e.g., React or similar), backend services (e.g., Go, Java, Python, or similar), and data systems (relational and/or distributed stores, event pipelines).


• Experience establishing reliability and quality guardrails (SLAs/SLOs, automated testing, CI/CD, monitoring/alerting) for customer-facing systems.


• Demonstrated ability to align priorities and deliver results across 3+ cross-functional or partner engineering teams.


• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for executive, technical, and non-technical audiences.


• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in ads technology, retail media, or marketing platforms, ideally at platform scales managing $100M+ in annual advertiser spend.


• Background with experimentation and optimization systems (e.g., A/B testing, incrementality measurement, bidding/budget optimization, ML-driven recommendations).


• Experience building advertiser onboarding, campaign management, and reporting tools for self-serve enterprise users.


• Success scaling teams and scope over time, including mentoring or managing other managers and evolving org structures.


• Comfort navigating ambiguity and fast-changing priorities while maintaining a strong customer focus and bias to action.