patreonBrooklyn, NY
Staff Backend Engineer, Video Platform
Staff Backend Engineer, Video Platform
Staff Backend Engineer, Video Platform
patreonBrooklyn, NY
today
Software PublishersMedia Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content ProvidersTeleproduction and Other Postproduction Services
Apply for this role (opens in a new tab)Overview:
As Patreon's first dedicated video engineer, you will shape the live video platform enabling creators to connect with their communities at scale. You’ll lead architecture and delivery across ingest, transcoding, packaging, delivery, and playback, building backend services powering live experiences on web and mobile. You’ll optimize latency, quality, and reliability while evaluating video vendors and shaping a multi-quarter roadmap. You’ll mentor teammates and partner with cross-functional teams to support major creator events and long-term platform health. Compensation / Benefits salary equity plans healthcare flexible time off company holidays and recharge days commuter benefits
Responsibilities:
Lead architecture and delivery of live video systems across ingest, transcoding, packaging, delivery, and playback Build scalable backend services and APIs powering live video on web and mobile Improve end-to-end streaming latency, quality, and reliability Evaluate and integrate video vendors, balancing capabilities, cost, and flexibility Establish observability, quality metrics, SLAs, and load testing for major events Own production reliability including incident response, capacity planning, and resilience improvements Collaborate with product, infrastructure, web, and mobile teams to define a multi-quarter video roadmap Mentor engineers and conduct design reviews to grow video expertise within the team
Key requirements:
Extensive experience building and operating large-scale backend systems with demonstrated technical leadership Experience architecting live video systems supporting 100,000+ concurrent viewers Deep knowledge of live streaming tech (HLS, low-latency HLS, WebRTC) and trade-offs Ability to diagnose and improve streaming (buffering, adaptive bitrate, packet loss) Experience delivering broadcast and playback on web, iOS, and Android with client teams Strong foundations in distributed systems, APIs, data storage, caching, queues, and event-driven architectures Experience evaluating video vendors, understanding SDK limits, quotas, scaling, and pricing Operational mindset with video quality metrics, load testing, production debugging, and on-call support Experience operating cloud-native systems (AWS, Kubernetes) Proficiency in Python, Go, or similar backend language Ability to explain trade-offs and guide cross-functional decisions; mentor engineers and establish technical standards Commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace Strong communication and ability to translate technical trade-offs for non-technical stakeholders Mentoring and collaboration across teams Problem-solving mindset and resilience under high-scale events HLS, low-latency HLS, WebRTC AWS Kubernetes
Also on the board Same function, level within a rung
Level
Manager
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Occupation
Software Developers
Industry
Software Publishers
Posted
today