Senior Software Engineer, Video Encoding

As a Video Encoding Engineer, you will build, optimize, and maintain high-performance video processing workflows. You will own our end-to-end encoding toolchain—from experimentation and profile tuning to automated packaging workflows—ensuring our content is delivered with maximum quality, reliability, and efficiency.

You will work closely with the team on key video services projects around video ingestion, encoding, VoD/live-linear, Server-Side Ads Insertion, and Video QoS, with the goal of delivering a best-in-class streaming TV experience across all Roku devices. The projects that you will work on will impact millions of Roku users around the world. Throughout, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with key product engineering stakeholders across Roku engineering teams and to lead the design of our video services platform.

The ideal candidate will have endless curiosity and can pair a global mindset with locally relevant execution. You should be a gritty problem solver and self-starter who can drive programs with the product and commercial teams within Roku and across external strategic partner organizations. The successful candidate will display a balance of hard and soft skills, including the ability to respond quickly to changing business needs.

What you’ll be doing

• Design, build, optimize, and maintain FFmpeg-based encoding pipelines for both VOD and Live workflows, operating at scale in cloud environments such as AWS or GCP
• Develop, refine, and validate encoding presets for modern codecs, including H.264, HEVC, and AV1, ensuring optimal quality-to-bitrate performance
• Implement advanced encoding strategies such as multi-pass workflows, CRF tuning, per-title optimizations, and quality-targeted encoding
• Benchmark and evaluate video quality using VMAF and other objective metrics to drive continuous improvements in efficiency and viewing experience
• Build and maintain adaptive streaming packaging workflows, including HLS, DASH, and CMAF, ensuring broad device compatibility and reliable playback
• Profile and optimize system performance by identifying and eliminating bottlenecks across compute, storage, and I/O layers
• Write, review, and improve code, assessing architectural tradeoffs to deliver secure, high-performance, and highly concurrent video infrastructure services
• Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, product, and platform teams to support and advance company-wide video service initiatives

• Strong problem-solving and analytical abilities
• 5+ years of solid programming experience and passionate about writing high-quality and well-architected code
• Expert-level knowledge of FFmpeg or Gstreamer and their related toolchains (filters, flags, debugging, custom builds)
• Experience with hardware-based encoder/decoder libraries (NVENC, Vulkan
• Strong understanding of compression theory, codec internals, GOP structures, bitrate control, etc
• Experience with container formats: MP4, TS, fragmented MP4, ISOBMFF
• Familiarity with HLS/DASH, CMAF, adaptive bitrate design, DRM, and SCTE 35
• A track record working with applied AI-based video enhancement and compression algorithms (Super Resolution, Denoising, Artifact Removal)
• Hands-on experience with cloud compute (AWS Lambda/ECS/Batch, GCP, Kubernetes, or similar)
• Ability to handle periodic on-call duty as well as out-of-band requests; strong written and verbal communication skills
• Bachelor's degree in computer science plus 8 years of experience or equivalent; Master's degree preferred