Brightcove manages and distributes over a hundred million videos and adds hundreds of thousands to that catalog every day. That’s no surprise given the explosive growth of online video and video consumption in general. To sustain such growth Brightcove is investing in improvements in our media delivery platform, aiming to make it even more efficient, scalable, and reliable. To that end, we are seeking candidates to join our Zencoder team. The Zencoder team builds and maintains our mass-scale, cloud-based media transcoding system which serves as the heart of Brightcove’s entire media delivery platform. As a Principal Software Engineer on the Zencoder team, you will help design and build new features, coach and mentor other developers, research innovative technologies, and contribute to enhancements to Zencoder’s multi-region and multi-cloud operations.

Job Responsibilities:

  • Work with Engineering Management and Product Management to plan development and deployment of new features for Zencoder
  • Contribute to the development of new features in Zencoder
  • Investigate specific customer issues, such as resource contention in a multi-tenant environment, possible defects, and customer-side problems. Collaborate with other engineers and engineering management to resolve the issues
  • Research, design, and implement innovative technologies for improving reliability, efficiency, and performance of the mass-scale cloud-based media transcoding system. Specific areas of focus may include: new efficient architectures for cloud-based media processing and transcoding; segment-based, scene-based, rendition-based, and title-based job partitioning schemes; algorithms for efficient aggregation, allocation, and scheduling of transcoding jobs; load estimation and auto-scaling algorithms; optimal multi-region and multi-cloud operations; optimal job allocation considering heterogeneous nature of cloud resources such as on-demand and spot-type instances, CPU vs GPU vs FPGA instances; and optimized processing at each worker level including parallel transcoding and optimal pipelining of operations.
  • Conduct validation studies for proposed technologies and improvements by  staging limited scale deployments, collecting metrics, and analyzing results
  • Stay abreast of latest developments in cloud platforms, transcoding architectures, new CPU/GPU/FPGA transcoding technologies, new 3rd-party SDKs, open source projects, etc.
  • Document and present the results in various forms, such as internal design documents, technical publications, white papers, patent applications, etc.
  • Help establish best practices and standards while mentoring other developers

Minimum Qualifications/Experience:

  • 6+ years of hands-on software engineering and architecture experience
  • Deep practical knowledge of capabilities and limits of cloud platforms (AWS preferred), including APIs, regions, instance types, and managed services such as auto-scalers, load-balancers, storage systems, queues, caches, and lambda functions.
  • Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL/RDS preferred)
  • Experience with distributed, in-memory caches (Redis preferred)
  • Ability to coach, guide and inspire other software engineers to innovate and collaborate with a solutions-focused approach.
  • Experience with Ruby and other programming languages. Experience with Elixir is a plus
  • Understanding of the full software delivery lifecycle, from conceptualization through delivery 
  • Experience working with version control, continuous deployment and performance monitoring tools. Zencoder uses Git, TeamCity, CircleCI, SumoLogic, DataDog, and CloudHealth
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, ability to work within a global team 
  • Experience with agile methodologies
  • Understanding of building, delivering and operating internet-scale, distributed, high availability systems
  • Ability to adapt to changing priorities, market conditions and fast-paced tech environment

Preferred Qualifications/Experience

  • MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related fields
  • Progressive experience in design and optimization of cloud-based, mass-scale media transcoding, processing, or delivery systems
  • Experience with Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
  • Knowledge of system-level standards: HLS, MPEG DASH, CMAF, ISOBMFF, MP2TS, etc.
  • Knowledge of structures of payloads and elementary streams: H.264/AVC, HEVC, AAC, AC3, etc.
  • Knowledge of means for carriage of subtitles, SCTE35, and other metadata in OTT systems
  • Knowledge of deployment guidelines associated with media delivery systems (Apple HLS deployment guidelines, DASH-IF IOPs, DVB-DASH, HbbTV DASH, CMAF content spec)
  • Experience using stream analyzers: Sencore CMA 1280, Tektronix MTS, Elecard StreamEye
  • Experience working with DRM systems (PlayReady, Widevine, FairPlay)
  • Understanding of new and evolving video and audio formats (HDR formats, spatial / object-based audio, immersive systems)
  • Experience with forensic watermarking systems
  • Experience in GPU or FPGA programming

Location: US HOME BASED (100% REMOTE)

About Brightcove 

As the industry leader in this space, we empower our customers to deliver top-notch video experiences to audiences on every screen in bold and innovative ways. When video is done right, it can have a powerful and lasting effect. Hearts open. Minds change. Creativity thrives. Since 2004, Brightcove has been supporting customers that are some of the largest media companies, enterprises, events, and non-profit organizations in the world. There are over 600 Brightcovers globally, each of us representing our unique talents and passions and we have built a culture that values individual empowerment, excellence and collaboration. This culture enables us to develop technologies once thought impossible, provide customer support without parallel or excuses, and leverage the expertise and resources of a global infrastructure. We take our video seriously, and we take great pride in doing it as one team.

Working at Brightcove

As the undisputed global leader in powering premium video for our customers, Brightcove recruits and retains highly qualified and motivated individuals, creating an environment where people can innovate and achieve their best, and we reward them for their performance by giving them the opportunity to share in the company’s success. We offer competitive compensation, stock options, 401k matching, and tuition reimbursement, as well as generous PTO - and we expect you to use it!

We offer Remote, Hybrid, and Onsite work arrangements.  Our US based office is located in downtown Boston, in Fort Point harbor. This Brightcove office has an open working space layout with beautiful water views. Employees enjoy access to fully-stocked kitchens and social activities including: happy hours, trivia and movie nights, ping pong tournaments, and philanthropy events. We have plenty of opportunities to meet your colleagues around the globe and we also celebrate a variety of personal interests with organized groups and clubs including an Employee Action Committee, Women of Brightcove, Pride of Brightcove, Parents of Brightcove … and more!

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. If you need any accommodations for your interview, please email recruiting@brightcove.com. 

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