Coding for Programmatic Advertising
By Phanindra Cherukuri
Hey! My name is Phani, and I’m currently a Senior Solutions Engineer at TripleLift.
Coding Background
While I was taking Computer Science classes in college, I had no idea how I was going to use that knowledge in the future. All I knew was that there were people out there creating cool apps like Snapchat, Airbnb, and Uber. As I graduated from college, I started turning my own ideas into some side projects to get my feet wet with web development. One of these side projects gained traction and became my full-time startup job for a year, where I was building a website that offered mobile VR tours for real estate buyers or renters. Working on that startup made me realize that I was passionate about using coding to solve interesting, real-world problems — but at the same time, it made me realize that I enjoyed being business-facing too. Funnily enough, there’s an engineering job made just for that!
A Solutions Engineer sits at the intersection of tech (e.g. Software Engineer, Product Manager) and business (e.g. Sales, Business Development). They’re seen as highly technical experts on the company product that also understand what success means to the end customer. In many cases, that means putting on an entrepreneurial hat and using coding to come up with creative solutions for customer success.
How I Use Coding Today
I’m now 2 years into my role at TripleLift, which is a leading company in the competitive world of programmatic advertising. There are many big companies that have made their name through facilitating internet ad transactions (e.g. Google), but we all know that these ads can be pretty annoying to the end user. I’m willing to bet that you have an ad blocker running right now, dontcha?
That’s why TripleLift made its mission to reinvent how we think about ads — if ads are a necessary evil for the internet to continue running, why not strive to make them as pleasing and engaging as possible for the viewer? TripleLift accomplishes this with computer vision technology that makes sure ads blend into the aesthetic of any online medium where content is shown (websites, mobile apps, even streaming devices and smart TVs!)
In my day-to-day, I’m expected to devise custom engineering solutions that enable TripleLift’s buyers to effectively spend their ad budgets on the inventory of various content publishers. My responsibilities are:
- Leading client meetings as the technical expert on TripleLift’s products to help our Business Development team sell in new deals
- Writing clean, scalable code that “plugs” client technology into TripleLift’s exchange to start bidding on inventory and render ads seamlessly
- Optimizing the way we emit our business information over HTTP requests to increase platform liquidity
- Staying up-to-date on the latest web development trends (the entire advertising industry can shift with just one Google Chrome update!)
I believe that learning how to code opens up endless opportunities for one’s career, and life in general. That doesn’t necessarily mean only working as a software engineer at a classic tech company like Microsoft — it’s a skill that lets you contribute in any industry these days. Want to use AI to help banks and hedge funds trade more effectively? Cool, Python is widely used in quantitative finance. Want to build tools that help our space explorers on their mission? Awesome, JavaScript powers the glowing screens that astronauts used during the June 2020 SpaceX rocket launch. Want to provide our doctors with faster ways to treat illnesses? Guess what — “telemedicine” is the next frontier, and it requires speedy mobile app platforms that can remotely connect healthcare workers with their patients. The modern-day world is all about using technology to solve problems, so the people that are able to build and improve technology are highly sought after and can go on to create incredible things.
Programming Languages & Tools I Use
- Java
- JavaScript
- PHP
- Python
- HTML/CSS
- SQL
- MongoDB
Besides work, Phani’s hobbies are fitness, curating Spotify/SoundCloud playlists, hiking, and trying food from around the world.
