About the Role
You'll own video playback across our Android footprint - mobile, tablet, Android TV, and Fire TV. This is deep media engineering, not general app development: ExoPlayer/Media3 internals, adaptive bitrate, DRM, and improving the QoE metrics that matter - startup time, rebuffer ratio, and playback failures.
As a Staff engineer, you'll set technical direction for Android playback, mentor senior engineers, and work closely with backend video, CDN, and data teams
.
What You'll
• DoOwn the architecture and roadmap for our Android playback stack (ExoPlayer/Media
• 3)Improve ABR logic, buffering strategy, and track selection across varied networks and device tie
• rsLead DRM work: Widevine L1/L3, secure playback, offline downloa
• dsDrive support for HLS, MPEG-DASH, CMAF, low-latency streaming, HDR, and multi-codec strategy (H.264/HEVC/AV
• 1)Build and maintain SSAI/CSAI ad insertion in the player, including beaconing and clean ad transitio
• nsUse playback telemetry (Conviva, Mux, or in-house) to diagnose and fix issues in producti
• onDebug device-specific problems: MediaCodec failures, DRM provisioning errors, codec quirks on low-end hardwa
• reMentor senior engineers and set standards for the playback te
am
What You'll N
• eed8+ years of Android experience, 4+ focused on video playb
• ackDeep, hands-on ExoPlayer/Media3 expertise — you've built custom components (renderers, load control, track selectors), not just integrated a player v
• iewStrong grasp of streaming fundamentals: ABR, manifests, CDNs, and how encoding/packaging decisions affect the cli
• entProduction experience with Widevine DRM and Android media internals (MediaCodec, MediaDrm, hardware decoder behavi
• or)Experience shipping on Android TV and/or Fire TV at sc
• aleFluent in Kotlin, comfortable in legacy Java player c
• odeStaff-level communication: clear technical docs, cross-team alignm
ent
Nice to
• HaveExoPlayer/Media3 open source contribut
• ionsLow-latency live streaming (LL-HLS, LL-D
• ASH)Ad tech standards: VAST, VMAP,
• SGAICasting/Chromecast experi
• enceLive sports or event streaming backgr
ound