Spot AI is hiring: Sr. Software Engineer, Video Pipeline in San Francisco

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Who We Are

At Spot AI, we’re building the future of intelligent operations, powered by the untapped potential of video. While we started with revolutionizing video surveillance, today we’re at the forefront of using cameras as sensors and AI agents to automate human tasks across the physical world. Our leading‑edge platform and award‑winning technology helps mid‑market and enterprise businesses improve safety, security and operational efficiency by transforming video footage into actionable insights.

Cultural Pillars

• Spend Strategically – we maximize resources and minimize waste.
• Push for Progress – we make decisions, move fast and celebrate action.
• Obsess Over Customers – we remove friction and add value to create delight.
• Trust Our Team – respect, trust and collaboration are non‑negotiable.
• Act Like Owners – we say what we’ll do and we do what we say, taking pride and responsibility in our work.
• Never Stop Having Fun – we’re creating something epic and we’re having fun doing it.

Who You Are

You’re a seasoned video systems engineer who thrives on building complex, high‑performance systems. You’ve spent the past 7+ years honing your craft in professional software engineering environments, and at least 3 of those have been focused on building or optimizing video pipelines using tools like GStreamer or FFmpeg. You’re comfortable with writing Rust code and bonus points if you’ve built GStreamer pipelines in Rust.

You love to experiment, iterate and get things working in the wild. You understand the full flow of video data—from ingestion and decoding, to compression and streaming—and you know how to tune performance in resource‑constrained environments like edge devices.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong focus on performance and reliability.
• 3+ years building production‑ready video pipelines with GStreamer, FFmpeg, or similar frameworks.
• Hands‑on experience with streaming protocols like WebRTC, RTSP, or HLS and codecs like H.264, H.265.
• Experience coding in Rust or C/C++ and deploying applications in Linux environments.
• A problem‑solving mindset, strong communication skills and a desire to work cross‑functionally.

Responsibilities

• Own the design, development and scaling of our video pipeline for edge devices, ensuring real‑time processing and efficient performance.
• Optimize for Intel and NVIDIA GPU encoders and decoders.
• Collaborate with product and hardware teams to optimize video quality across different camera models and network conditions.
• Lead initiatives to instrument and monitor performance, then design tools and improvements that help the entire team ship better video experiences faster.
• Evaluate and integrate new protocols and codecs that improve efficiency or enable new customer use cases.
• Contribute clean, reliable and well‑documented code to a growing codebase that ships often.
• Work closely with support and customer teams to troubleshoot live issues and deliver customer‑obsessed solutions.

Compensation and Benefits

• Annual Base Salary Range: $195,000 – $220,000. The offered salary will depend on your location within the U.S. and your demonstrated skills and competencies for the role. Your recruiter will provide the specific range for your area as you progress through the interview process.
• Meaningful early‑stage equity.
• Medical, dental and vision plan options with little‑to‑no cost for employees and dependents.
• Company paid short‑ and long‑term disability plans.
• Company paid life insurance.
• 401(k) with employer match.

We are creating and cultivating a diverse and inclusive culture where we celebrate individuals for what they accomplish, no matter who they are! As an equal‑opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Seniority Level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment Type

Full‑time

Job Function

Engineering and Information Technology

Industries

Software Development