HIRING CONTEST
Build Challenge:
Marketing Development Engineer
Build a tool that solves a real problem for my media buying team. The best build wins $5,000 and a full-time job offer.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Before You Build, Read This
I want to pay $5,000to one AI-first engineer who can build the coolest marketing tool, and convince me they're worth hiring into a full-time job.
I made this contest because my marketing team needs an AI-first engineer who can solve problems and bring massive value through AI-first building. I believe this is the best way to find that person.
It's Today Media is an affiliate marketing company. We buy media at scale, build email and SMS lists, and monetize them. Our business has to stay on the cutting edge of marketing strategy and execution to survive. And right now, AI tools and agentic systems are becoming critical to staying on that edge.
My team has already built real things with AI. But building these tools takes time and focus that is in short supply for a lean team like ours. So I'm hiring a full-time engineer to own the development and implementation of these tools, take my team to the next level, and unlock the most value possible for our business.
I need someone who:
- Loves to get shit done.
- Gets genuinely fired up about the potential to develop killer, cutting-edge tools with AI.
- Can run with a project given incomplete direction.
- Will get genuinely excited about delivering an application or feature that helps our company make more money.
- Is comfortable operating in a highly dynamic environment and can deliver their best work under pressure.
- Wants to work hard, deliver massive value, and give us no choice but to reward you with both increased responsibility and financial upside.
And most importantly, I need someone who believes that working hard — yes, sometimes grinding — genuinely caring, and standing behind their work is incredibly fulfilling. And unlocks real financial upside.
Someone who deeply cares about the work. And also…deeply cares about making money.
The ideal candidate for this role has deep experience with both marketing and AI/agentic tools.
Chances are, I won't find that person.
What will make you stand out: contagious passion for marketing and/or AI, a willingness to fail fast, a desire to make a name for yourself through your work — plus enough relevant experience to actually do the job.
This is a build contest. If you can't actually build, this is the wrong place to find out.
Our company can't afford mediocre performance. Our business will fail. We're a small, extremely capable team, and I've learned over the years that our business genuinely needs A players — more than most.
If you aren't fired up after reading this, please do not apply. It's a waste of your time and you will not be picked.
This contest is intended ONLY for applicants who fit the description above, and are ready to start a full-time job as soon as possible.
THE CONTEST
What to Build
Build a real tool that delivers value to my media buying team.
The scope is wide. You can build anything, as long as you genuinely believe it's a valuable tool for our media buying operation — creative generation tools, MCP connectors to ad platforms, automation workflows, performance dashboards, landing page builders, or something else entirely.
The criteria:
- You believe it will solve a real problem for our business.
- You can convince me it will solve a real problem for our business.
- It actually works — or it's built to the highest level of functionality you could achieve in 14 days.
That's it. Build something.
If you don't have direct experience with media buying, do the research. We advertise at scale across all major ad platforms — Google, Meta, Taboola, TikTok. We report on that data to optimize. We build landing pages to generate and collect leads. This simple process requires immense technical input, and there are dozens of ways to add value with AI tooling.
What to Submit
A working demo
Live URL or Loom walkthrough. It must work — not a concept, not a mockup.
Code repo
GitHub — public or private. We're going to read your code.
A README answering three questions
- What does this tool do?
- Why did you build THIS one? (most important)
- What would you build next if this were your full-time job?
How We Judge
Problem selection
Did you pick something that actually matters to a marketing team?
Does it work?
Ugly and functional beats beautiful and broken.
Code quality
Readable, sensible architecture, something another engineer could extend.
The README
"Why this one?" and "What's next?" — these tell us how you think.
Prize Structure
| Place | What You Get | When |
|---|---|---|
| Finalists | $250 honorarium + guaranteed interview | After finalist interview |
| Winner | $5,000 cash + full-time job offer | Upon accepting the offer |
Rules
Submissions close July 1, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET. Submit early if you want time to polish.
Register before submitting. Takes 2 minutes.
One submission per person.
You own your code. We don't claim IP on any submissions unless you accept the role and sign a standard employment IP assignment.
AI tools encouraged. We care what you build, not how.
Solo submissions only.
Must be eligible to work in the US. Citizens, green card holders, and work-authorized residents.
Timeline
| Now | Submissions open |
| Jul 1, 2026 | Submissions close 11:59 PM ET |
| Jul 4 | Finalists notified |
| Jul 8–11 | Finalist interviews |
| Jul 15 | Winner announced + offer extended |
Requirements
COMPENSATION
Compensation
Compensation will be competitive and based on experience and capabilities.
The winner could be a senior engineer making $200K+ somewhere else who's tired of building products that don't matter. It could be a marketer making $75K who's been quietly shipping wild stuff with Claude and Cursor on the side and is ready for someone to bet on them.
Or anything in between.
So, while this contest does not include an explicit salary range, we can commit to this: the right person gets a competitive offer with strong base and real performance-driven upside. The whole point of hiring this role is to build things that make the company more money. When you do that, you share in the win.
I'm not putting a number on the upside because I don't want to cap it. The cap is your output. The better you are, the more you make. That's how this works.
Ready?
Register, build something, submit it. That's it.