Playback Engineer

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer specializing in video playback services and player technologies to help deliver world‑class streaming experiences. In this role, you will focus on building, optimizing, and evolving our playback platform, working across web, mobile, and connected devices. You will leverage modern player frameworks to fine‑tune playback performance, reliability, and quality at scale.

The Senior Software Engineer will collaborate closely with video infrastructure, CDN, encoding, product, and device teams to ensure a seamless, high‑quality viewing experience.

Job Responsibilities

Design, develop, and maintain playback services and client player integrations powering Sony Pictures' streaming applications

Build and enhance playback functionality using Shaka Player, Media3 Player (ExoPlayer), Video.js, hls.js and other open source video players across web, mobile, and connected TV platforms

Improve startup time, buffering performance, bitrate adaptation, and playback reliability

Optimize playback pipelines for HLS and DASH streaming, including DRM, adaptive bitrate (ABR), and CDN interaction

Analyze playback telemetry and QoE metrics to identify performance bottlenecks and drive improvements at scale

Conduct deep technical investigations into playback failures, device compatibility issues, and streaming edge cases

Implement advanced features such as:

Low latency streaming

DRM integrations (Widevine, PlayReady, FairPlay)

Ad insertion (SSAI / CSAI)

Offline playback

Contribute to technical strategy and best practices for streaming media playback

Implement playback monitoring, telemetry, and analytics instrumentation to measure and improve video QoE

Develop tools and dashboards to monitor playback health and diagnose issues in production environments

Job Qualifications

5+ years of software engineering experience in video streaming, media playback, or related areas

Strong experience with video player frameworks, including at least one of: Shaka Player, Media3 Player, Video.js, hls.js

Deep understanding of adaptive streaming protocols: HLS, MPEG-DASH, CMAF

Familiarity with DRM technologies including Widevine, PlayReady, or FairPlay

Experience analyzing video QoE metrics (startup time, rebuffering, bitrate adaptation, playback errors)

Preferred Qualification

Experience building or contributing to player SDKs or playback frameworks

Familiarity with Media3 Player (ExoPlayer) internals and Android media pipeline

Experience with ad-supported streaming and FAST channel delivery

Experience working with CDNs, edge delivery, and media packaging pipelines

Understanding of modern codecs

Experience contributing to or working with open source player ecosystems

Job Work Set up

Onsite (Office Location: Culver City, CA) - Mondays to Thursdays / Remote - Fridays

40 work hours/week

Full-Time Position with Benefits - Includes Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage through HMO

Note: This position does not include Paid Time Off (PTO) or 401(k) benefits

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