Software Engineer - Ads Backend
About the job
- A BS degree or above in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Science (physics or mathematics), or another relevant major is required.
- At least 3 years of experience developing backend systems for high-traffic web services is required.
- Advanced skill and experience in at least one of Java, Kotlin, or Golang; C++, C#, and Python are also accepted.
- Fluent use of Kafka, Redis, SQL, and some NoSQL databases is required.
- Business-level English and conversational-level Japanese are required.
- Participate in the architectural design and iteration of robust, scalable online and offline backend systems for the ad delivery platform.
- Drive engineering efforts across Ranking Backend (ad prediction and delivery), Premium Ads (guaranteed visibility and premium positioning), Targeting and Custom Audience (precision user-ad matching), and Measurement (cross-platform performance analytics across web and app scenarios).
- Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams, including Ads Ranking (Machine Learning), Ads Foundation, Data Platform, and AI Infrastructure, to build resilient, high-quality ad products.
- Experience in the advertisement or Ad Tech industry.
- High programming skills in Java, such as failure analysis and class/interface design.
- Experience designing architecture for a high-traffic web service.
- Experience using AI in daily engineering work.
- Experience configuring, developing, and operating a Microservice or Service Mesh architecture.
- Experience with GitHub, AWS, Spring Boot, MySQL, Hive, Spark, Flink, Docker, and Kubernetes.
- Experience with large-scale data processing techniques.
- Basic understanding of machine learning, statistics, and mathematics at a liberal arts level.
- Experience leading a project through its full lifecycle, including clarifying motivation and goals, defining system design, developing and releasing it, and learning from the result.
- Skill and willingness to partner with internal business people to define product strategy and features, such as ads product managers or ads product specialists.
- Business-level Japanese.
About the company
SmartNews aggregates news from over 3,000 publishers into a single app, letting users read a wide range of stories in one place. It relies on machine learning to analyze articles, social signals, and user behavior to surface trending and relevant news, with features like SmartView for fast reading and offline access. The service earns mainly from ads and revenue-sharing deals with publishers, plus SmartNews+ for premium content from many media partners. Its goal is to reduce information overload by providing broad, newspaper-like discovery rather than hyper-personalized feeds, while sustaining the business through publisher partnerships and advertising.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Debt Financing
Total Funding
$486.5M
Headquarters
Tokyo, Japan
Founded
2012
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- April 2026 Docomo renamed My Magazine to SmartNews for docomo, expanding Japanese reach.
- May 2026 SmartNews Ads Conference named 64 partner agencies, including CyberAgent and Hakuhodo DY ONE.
- July 17, 2026 AI Transformation Division signals product velocity and cost automation focus.
What critics are saying
- Bloomberg's March 2026 Tokyo IPO report set up a likely down-round versus 2021 valuation.
- SmartNews depends on publisher traffic and ad agencies; AP, Reuters, and media partners can renegotiate.
- Google and Apple control distribution; App Store ranking changes can crush installs overnight.
What makes SmartNews unique
- SmartView and 4,500+ publisher network preserve a clean, cross-source reading habit.
- SmartNews Rewards, launched March 25, 2026, monetizes reading with gift-card incentives.
- Docomo partnership and 64 agency partners deepen distribution across Japan and ads.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
0%1 year growth
0%2 year growth
1%Our latest funding round was led by Development Bank of Japan, followed by SMBC Venture Capital and Japan Co-Invest L.P. (managed by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Investment). The new funds will be used to accelerate growth, hiring and business development, and to expand research and development of our machine learning technology for news discovery.
TOKYO (August 8) -- SmartNews, the free, award-winning news-discovery app for iOS and Android, has raised $36 million in Series B funding, with significant investments from international investment firm Atomico and global mobile-social company GREE.
SmartNews has launched a rewards programme in the US that allows users to earn points for reading news articles, marking the first initiative of its kind amongst American news apps according to the company's research. Users are automatically enrolled in challenges to earn points by reading a specified number of articles within set timeframes. Points can be redeemed through the Tango Rewards platform for gift cards at retailers like Amazon or charitable donations to organisations including the Special Olympics. The programme follows a successful rollout in Japan and underwent beta testing in the US from December 2025, showing strong adoption. Founded in 2012, SmartNews serves millions of users globally through partnerships with over 3,000 publishers and uses machine learning technology for news discovery.
SmartNews, a news app available in Japan and the US, closed its Series E1 funding round in July 2019, achieving a valuation exceeding ¥100 billion, thus becoming a "unicorn." The funding was led by ACA Investments, with continued support from Globis Capital Partners. The company is focused on expanding in the US market, with plans for an IPO. Key figures involved in the funding include Tetsuya Matsumoto from SmartNews, Hiroyuki Ono from ACA, and Minoru Konno from GCP.
Japan’s startup sector, despite being one of the biggest in the world, has lagged behind other regions like the U.S., China, and the U.K., in terms of the number of unicorns and the scale of venture capital investment. For years, an aging population, overall economic deflation, and salarymen’s inclination to work at traditional, big corporations meant the startup life wasn’t an attractive one for many.For context: Per a recent IMF report that cites CB Insights data, as of October 2023, the U.S. had about 661 unicorns, China counted 172, and the U.K. had 52. Japan had a mere seven unicorns. (PitchBook pegs the number of Japanese startups at nine, so it’s possible we have more unicorns in the market than these datasets suggest.)But things are looking up — somewhat