Senior Director, Video Encoding Engineering

Summary

Join NBC Sports Next as a Senior Director of Video Engineering to lead the Video Encoding and Delivery organization, responsible for encoding, packaging, and delivering premium video experiences. Oversee a team focused on scaling core infrastructure for media content delivery across platforms. Architect and optimize media systems, build organizational structure, and develop a long-term vision for the video technology platform. Partner with various teams to improve video quality, reduce latency, and optimize costs. This fully remote position requires 10+ years of engineering leadership in video delivery and proven success managing large engineering teams.

Requirements

• 10+ years of engineering leadership in video delivery, encoding, or adjacent domains
• Demonstrated success managing and scaling multi-layered engineering orgs (50+ engineers)
• Deep understanding of codecs (AV1, HEVC, H.264), streaming protocols (HLS, DASH), and DRM (Widevine, FairPlay)
• Strong familiarity with video packaging, manifest manipulation, and multi-bitrate ladder generation
• Experience partnering with Product, Operations, and Client Engineering to drive the delivery of highly reliable video experiences
• Proven track record of technical innovation and strategic thinking

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the multi-year vision for video encoding and delivery pipelines, including UHD, HDR, and next-gen codec support
• Partner with Product, Content Ops, and Platform teams to align on roadmaps that improve video quality, reduce latency, and optimize storage/delivery costs
• Guide architecture decisions for scalable, observable, and fault-tolerant video processing services
• Lead and mentor Directors, Senior Managers, and Principal Engineers across encoding and video delivery
• Identify and address skillset gaps, eliminate silos, and evolve the team to meet current and future technical challenges
• Establish hiring strategies to bring in top-tier talent in compression, transcoding, packaging, and delivery optimization
• Drive continuous improvements in encoding throughput, output quality, cost efficiency, and release velocity
• Own and report on key KPIs such as encoding SLA adherence, content readiness latency, packaging success rates, and client playback error rates
• Collaborate with QA and Client Apps to improve E2E test coverage and reduce regressions during rollout of new codecs or packaging formats
• Serve as the principal engineering voice in cross-org initiatives involving video lifecycle, CDN strategies, DRM enforcement, and client playback enhancements
• Foster a strong collaboration with the Platform Engineering & Playback team to evaluate and implement emerging technologies in video compression and streaming
• Lead proof-of-concept efforts and evaluate build-vs-buy decisions related to encoding toolchains, AI-based quality assessment, and server-side ad insertion compatibility

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with DRM systems (Widevine, PlayReady, FairPlay)
• Background in OTT, DTC, or broadcast-grade video delivery
• Experience with perceptual quality measurement (VMAF, SSIM, PSNR) and automated QC
• Contributions to open-source video projects or active engagement in the media tech community

Benefits

Fully Remote: This position has been designated as fully remote, meaning that the position is expected to contribute from a non-NBCUniversal worksite, most commonly an employee’s residence