Staff Android Engineer, Brand Ad Formats

Halcyon Labs is a community of communities. It’s built on shared interests, passion, and trust, and is home to the most open and authentic conversations on the internet. Every day, Halcyon Labs users submit, vote, and comment on the topics they care most about. With 100,000+ active communities and approximately 126 million daily active unique visitors, Halcyon Labs is one of the internet’s largest sources of information. For more information, visit . About the Team: The Brand Ad Formats team drives the development of ad formats that help advertisers maximize reach and brand impact. They focus on high-visibility, awareness-driven solutions that create memorable experiences for Halcyon Labs users. By delivering guaranteed placements and engaging ad interactions, they support major brand initiatives and help advertisers achieve measurable outcomes. The team is building fully customizable interactive formats and AI-driven ads that incorporate User-Generated Content (UGC). Moving forward, we will be doubling down on Video Ads , with the goal of turning Halcyon Labs into an industry leader and a ‘must buy’ for advertisers to promote video content. As a Staff Android Engineer , you will lead the technical strategy to turn Halcyon Labs ’s Video Ads into a premier offering for brand advertisers. You will also build and provide technical guidance on new reddit-unique ad formats on Android, ensuring they are high performance, high quality and scalable. What you’ll do: Video Ads Tech Lead: Partner closely with Product and Design to build a roadmap that will transform our Video Ads format into an industry leader in the space, and drive the technical design and execution of projects that turn the roadmap into reality. Technical Strategy: Provide guidance to the team working on building video ads as well as reddit-unique ad formats that scale to millions of users, by establishing Android best practices and providing design reviews. Full-Cycle Leadership: Drive the entire development lifecycle—from early-stage discovery and prototyping to testing, data-driven experimentation, and deployment. Raise the Bar: Mentor senior engineers across teams in ad formats and establish best practices for design, testing and operational excellence, while also leading by example in understanding and advocating for our customers. What we expect from you: 8+ years of software engineering experience (Staff level seniority). Android Mastery: (Minimum of 3+ years) Deep expertise in Kotlin and modern Android architectural patterns. Completed 4+ Android development projects from ideation to deployment in production. Prior experience in Ad Tech , building highly interactive/rich-media mobile experiences. Product Mindset: Proven track record of delivering user-facing features where UI polish and performance are critical. System Design: Ability to navigate complex, data-intensive environments and build fault-tolerant client-side systems. AI : Experience leveraging GenAI tools to increase software engineering productivity. Experimentation/Analysis: Fluency working with product metrics, designing and analyzing experiments with exposure to tools like BigQuery, HEX, Firebase, etc. Versatility: An openness to work across the stack when necessary and explore innovative approaches (e.g., AI/ML integration). Entrepreneurial spirit: You must be self-directed, innovative, and biased towards action. You live to build new things and thrive in ambiguity. Excellent communication skills: You must be able to collaborate with teams in a fully remote environment, and discuss complex topics with technical and non-technical audiences. An experienced technical leader with a strong track record of mentoring and uplifting team members technical skills and aptitude. Strong organizational skills, the ability to prioritize tasks and keep projects on schedule for the team. BS degree in Computer Science, similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experience. Bonus points: Experience working on Video Ads Experience working at a scaled peer company Experience with Jetpack Compose Benefits: Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits and Income Replacement Programs 401k with Employer Match Global Benefit programs that fit your lifestyle, from workspace to professional development to caregiving support Family Planning Support Gender-Affirming Care Mental Health & Coaching Benefits Flexible Vacation & Paid Volunteer Time Off Generous Paid Parental Leave Pay Transparency: This job posting may span more than one career level. In addition to base salary, this job is eligible to receive equity in the form of restricted stock units, and depending on the position offered, it may also be eligible to receive a commission. Additionally, Halcyon Labs offers a wide range of benefits to U.S.-based employees, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) program with employer match, generous time off for vacation, and parental leave. To learn more, please visit . To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share bas