Life at Nexxen with Chris Wieland

Welcome to the latest edition of Life at Nexxen, a series spotlighting our employees – from their career journeys and go-to advice to the rituals and activities that make up their days here at Nexxen.  

In this installment, Engineering Manager Chris Wieland shares what he enjoys most about his role, his favorite music venue in New York, and how curiosity led him to adtech. 

How long have you been with Nexxen? 

Over 10 years. I originally joined when the company was named Tremor Video.  

What brought you to the company back then? 

I started in the finance department with an internship, looking to break into the tech industry and learn as much as I can. In college, I studied both computer science and business, so it was an exciting chance to work at a tech startup and apply what I had learned. It was the early days of ad-tech that drew me into its creative and fast-paced environment. I spent a few months out of the company after the initial contract was over, but the people and culture really pulled me back. I quickly jumped at the chance to return in an Operations role, and later Platform Support, where I could learn more about the technology side.  

Did you join the company right after college?  

No, after I graduated, I continued to work in my family’s small business for a few years. My family owned a music store selling instruments, vinyl records, and offering lessons. Eventually I decided to explore my interest in technology and that is when my journey to Nexxen began.  

Because you’ve been with Nexxen through multiple acquisitions, what is one thing that’s helped you through all those transitions?  

First, it helped to look at it as a new challenge. With any merger comes a lot of opportunity to rethink how things are done. From an engineering standpoint, we could find the best pieces from different systems on both sides and figure out how to put them together. It was an interesting technical challenge.  

Second, it was important to have good team members that are pushing through with you. I was lucky to have good mentors with previous experience navigating these types of organizational changes. 

For the DSP, can you say what your team is specifically responsible for?  

We develop software which works behind the scenes to power some of the core decision making of the DSP. These systems process hundreds of thousands of requests per second from SSPs and determine how and when to deliver ad campaigns in an intelligent way. Specifically, my team focuses on what we call “control systems,” which handle features like campaign daily-budget allocation, intraday pacing, dynamic bid pricing, and status controllers.  

In terms of cross-collaboration, are you working with a lot of U.S. based teams or is there a lot of collaboration with our Tel Aviv based teams? 

It is a little bit of both. We have a group of engineers across the U.S collaborating on the DSP backend, but we also work closely with frontend Apps Engineering, based in Tel Aviv, who build our UI platform.  

On top of that, we collaborate with Product Development, Applied Science, Operations, Support Engineering, and other teams who have members worldwide.  

Is there a project you’re really proud of your team for accomplishing this year? 

Broadly speaking, unifying the DSP teams and platforms post-merger was a big accomplishment that required a lot of coordination and planning across many individual projects. The team did a great job adapting to new challenges and learning new things in a short amount of time. A lot of platform improvement came out of the unification effort, which our users have been happy with. Another proud accomplishment for the team was helping to develop the bid price optimization feature, which has had a direct impact on Nexxen DSP’s success over the last year. 

What is your favorite part of your role at Nexxen?  

I enjoy solving problems. Every day, you never know what will come up, which keeps things interesting. Even though the underlying technology may be the same, every new challenge or project presents something unique that we haven’t fully seen before. I love working with data and being analytical – so on top of writing code, it is great to be able to tap into a large set of data to drive the work we do and to make sense of it all.  

Do you start your days with a coffee and a newspaper, or do you have a different routine? 

Definitely coffee and maybe listen to a podcast while I review the status of current projects or plan ahead for the day. I try to run a few miles, 2-3 times a week.  I am planning to run the New York City Half Marathon in March, so running will be part of my morning routine for the next few months.  

What do you like to do for fun? 

My wife and I like to travel – this year we went to Italy and South Africa, where we went on a Safari for the first time. I like to go to a weekly pub trivia with some friends and on weekends try to get out of the city to do something outdoors and away from a computer screen, like hiking or snowboarding. I also enjoy seeing live music whenever I can, here in NYC. 

Do you have a favorite venue in New York?  

I like a lot of the smaller ones compared to the big stadiums. This past summer, I enjoyed going to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, a smaller outdoor venue. It has a great atmosphere. I have been going to places like Bowery Ballroom since high school, so that one has a certain nostalgia factor.