Staff Backend Engineer

Summary

Join GameChanger's new Video Engineering team as a Staff Backend Engineer and lead the expansion of our video capabilities. You will architect and develop video features across the entire pipeline, from live ingestion to playback. Collaborate with cross-functional teams, mentor junior engineers, and help build a scalable and resilient platform to handle millions of streams. This role requires extensive experience in video streaming, cloud environments, and various video technologies. As a founding member, you'll shape the team's culture and technical direction. GameChanger offers a remote-first work environment and a comprehensive benefits package.

Requirements

• Background in video and audio streaming with a focus on live-streaming of user-generated content
• 5+ years of experience building scalable video pipelines in cloud environments (We use AWS but any cloud/container experience is fine)
• Experience with audio and video packaging principles, codecs, and other associated tools, including their relative tradeoffs, such as MPEG Video, MPEG-2 TS, HLS, DASH, H.264 AVC, H.265 HEVC, VP9, AV1, VVC, RTMP/enhanced RTMP, SRT, FFMPEG, and DRM
• Hands-on software development experience designing and building live and video on demand streaming workflows and exposure to many video technologies around mobile broadcast, ingest, transcoding, storage, playback, and related systems at scale
• Proficiency reading and coding in at least one of the languages commonly used in the video space, such as c#/golang/C++/Rust/Python, and experience in other higher-level languages such as Node/TypeScript, React, or mobile languages like Kotlin or Swift
• Experience designing/building/connecting internal APIs/SDKs across the stack (backend to front end) to ensure rapid feature development
• Experience mentoring and working with other teams through documentation and live sessions on the best way to accomplish building features using the system we build/own
• Familiarity with mobile video broadcasting of user-generated content and the challenges of optimizing streaming quality and reliability across a variety of devices and network conditions
• Hands-on experience with one or more video players
• Front end development experience in web, iOS (Swift), or Android (Kotlin) required

Responsibilities

• Architect, code, and support video features across the video pipeline stack, including live video ingestion, transcoding, integration, storage, and playback/usage at scale
• Help refine the strategic roadmap for the technology powering our video features as we continue to grow and add new capabilities
• Collaborate with mobile, web, machine learning/computer vision, and platform teams on multi-faceted projects across the entire video processing system to lead improved user experiences and outcomes
• Review and provide feedback on designs and code PRs, pair on architectures, and provide guidance and hands-on help
• Help to build and connect to internal SDKs, frameworks, and tooling to allow product development teams to easily integrate video into the product at different stages of the video pipeline
• Help build real-time monitoring and measurement systems for critical operational workflows in the video pipeline, including tools for on-call developers and customer support to manage and troubleshoot issues
• Lead, mentor, interview, and onboard other software engineers in the video and live-streaming space
• Be able to be in an on call rotation to support our production systems if issues arise off hours

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience creating detailed technical documentation that details how to break down complex projects and technical details for team members of varying expertise
• Technical leadership experience in software engineering roles in the video streaming space
• Comfortable working across multiple technologies, programming languages, and areas of the video stack
• Foster collaboration within technical teams
• Someone who loves learning the latest tech in the mobile and live streaming spaces, and loves teaching it to other engineers and product managers
• Proficiency in CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitLab, etc.)

Benefits

• Work remotely throughout the US* or from our well-furnished, modern office in Manhattan, NY
• Unlimited vacation policy
• Paid volunteer opportunities
• Technology stipend - $4,000 every 2 years after your start to make sure you have the latest and greatest technology
• WFH stipend - $500 annually to make your WFH situation comfortable
• Learning stipend - $500 annually towards continued development
• Monthly physical, mental, wellness & learning stipend offered through Holisticly
• Monthly lifestyle stipend offered through Fringe
• Full health benefits - medical, dental, vision, prescription, FSA, HRA, HSA, and coverage for family/dependents
• Family building benefits offered through Progyny
• Life insurance - basic life, supplemental life, and dependent life
• Disability leave - short-term disability and long-term disability
• Retirement savings - Traditional and Roth 401K plans are offered through Vanguard, with an immediate company match
• Generous parental leave
• DICK’S Sporting Goods & their family of brands teammate discount