From Madrid to Austin: How Senior Software Engineer Tomas built his career
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When Tomas Rodriguez packed up his life in Madrid to move to Austin in 2021, he was following a professional and personal dream. At Amazon Ads, he found a place where he could solve problems at scale and make his mark.
“I was in Spain with Amazon for four years and looking for a change,” Tomas explains. “Ads always interested me a lot, and I wanted to transfer to the U.S. I interviewed with a few teams and landed in Publisher Technologies (known as PubTech), which is where I’ve been ever since.”
Tomas already had experience working across Europe. “I joined Amazon in January 2018 in Madrid,” he explains. “Before that, I’d been in Paris for five years, working in IT consulting. We ran projects for most of the big French companies, from banking to car rental. It gave me a wide view across industries, but I wanted something new.”
Advertising powers the internet
For many software developers, Amazon Ads is not the most obvious career path. AWS, retail systems, or logistics may spring to mind first, but for Tomas, the decision was a no-brainer. “Advertising is what powers the whole internet. The reason everything is free online is that it’s supported through advertising. This was super interesting to me. I also knew there was this huge shift happening—from traditional advertising to digital—and I wanted to be in the middle of that.”
But once Tomas joined Amazon Ads, the scale of the business took him aback. “When I did the transfer, I didn’t know just how big Ads was at Amazon. It’s huge. We run ads in Prime Video, Twitch, Amazon Stores, Alexa, Amazon Music—everywhere. I didn’t even know Twitch was part of Amazon when I joined.”
Tomas’s team is responsible for pulling together the deals that allow publishers to package and sell their advertising inventory.
“Essentially, we deliver application programming interfaces (APIs) for publishers—Amazon organizations such as Prime Video or Twitch—that want to monetize their spaces. They package inventory into products and then sell them through deals.”
The business is very fast-paced. “I don’t think there’s another place at Amazon as dynamic as this one,” says Tomas. “Ads is growing. We’ve got huge initiatives that span from supply side to demand side, with big plans for the next three to five years. It’s amazing.”
This pace of change has helped Tomas’s career progression, “I joined as a Software Engineer in November 2021 and was promoted to Senior Software Engineer last year.”
The organization’s expansion makes it particularly attractive for software engineers. Tomas explains, “If you’re a Software Engineer considering your options, I don’t think you’ll find the same opportunities elsewhere. At Amazon Ads, you can build amazing products, work on a scale of problems you won’t see outside, and be part of a business that’s still evolving. It’s one of the best places to be.”
Life in Austin
Career growth wasn’t the only reason Tomas wanted to move to the U.S. “I wanted to experience the American dream. And to me, that’s exactly what I’ve got. I’m living in a beautiful home with a backyard where my kids can run. We’ve got good weather and a great social circle, and I’m just 12 minutes from the office. I’m in love with this place.”
This isn’t the first time Tomas has relocated with Amazon. “The first time was from Paris to Madrid. Amazon took care of everything—the move, the logistics, immigration—and did the same again when I moved to Austin. Moving countries is complicated, but Amazon made it simple. That kind of support makes a huge difference.”
Challenge and scale
“What I appreciate most at Amazon is the scale of the challenges,” Tomas continues. “We’re constantly launching new products, iterating quickly, always learning. We’re creating technology to let publishers monetize in ways they couldn’t before. We’re creating products that didn’t exist before and doing it at a speed that wasn’t possible before. That’s how we’re re-imagining advertising.”
Looking ahead
“There’s still so much to do here. I think I have a lot of growing potential with Amazon Ads without moving to another team. If it were just up to me, I’d stay in Austin for years. Family reasons might take us back to Spain at some point, but professionally, this is the best place I could be.”
His advice to other engineers is simple: “Don’t underestimate Amazon Ads. I didn’t know how big it was until I joined. But it’s huge, dynamic, and full of opportunities. If you’re curious, if you want to grow, if you want to work on problems at scale, this is the place to do it.”