Senior / Staff Video Software Engineer at Mux | Y Combinator (2024)

Senior / Staff Video Software Engineer at Mux | Y Combinator (1)

Mux

Video infrastructure for developers

$195K - $240K

Location

San Francisco, CA, US / Remote (US)

Job Type

Full-time

Experience

6+ years

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Mux

and hundreds of other fast-growing YC startups with a singleprofile.

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About the role

About Mux

Mux is video for developers. Our mission is to democratize video by solving the hard problems developers face when building video: video encoding and streaming (Mux Video), video monitoring (Mux Data), and more. Video is a huge part of people’s lives, and we want to help make it better.

We’re committed to building a healthy team that welcomes diverse backgrounds and experiences. We want people who care about our mission, are ready to grow, believe in our values (from Be Human to Turn Customers Into Fans), and want to improve the people around them.

You’ll join a tight-knit team with experience at places like Google, YouTube, Twitch, Reddit, Zencoder, Fastly, and more. Our founders previously started (and sold) Zencoder, an early leader in cloud video technology, and authored Video.js, the biggest HTML5 video player on the web. We organize Demuxed, the premiere conference for video engineers in the world.

We’re backed by top investors like Coatue, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, and Y Combinator. You’ll get to work with amazing companies: hundreds of startups, plus Reddit, Vimeo, Robinhood, CBSi, Discovery, PBS, and TED. Customers, large and small, love working with us and love our team.

We are building something big together. We’d love to hear from you!

About the Role

As a Senior / Staff Video Software Engineer at Mux, you will play a key role in building Mux’s next-generation Video products that power delightful user experiences for millions worldwide.

You will lead and execute complex projects across our Video stack and infrastructure, handling hundreds of thousands of videos ingested and more than a billion encodes per month using our proprietary just-in-time transcoding architecture. You will also help chart the technical direction of our platform and product offerings and work closely with the rest of the engineering team to advance how we build software collaboratively.

What You’ll Do

  • Work cross-functionally with product, customer success, and other engineering teams to execute on product and business strategy and build cutting-edge Video products that our customers will love.
  • Contribute to the full development cycle: technical design, development, test, experimentation, analysis, launch & on-call. You’ll review code and design docs, give feedback on product specs, and run your code.
  • Take accountability for the planning and delivery of projects, both as a hands-on contributor and architect and as a facilitator.
  • Bring ideas and directly influence your team's roadmap, collaborating closely with cross-functional stakeholders, especially regarding Video features and functionality.
  • Build & promote best practices in your team for availability, reliability, and production readiness.

Who you are

  • 5+ years of experience in production Backend & Video Engineering using Golang, C, C++, or other similar languages, with a successful track record of contributing to sizable projects from start to finish with end-user impact.
  • Expertise in building and operating distributed video systems in a service-oriented architecture, including best practices for fault tolerance, latency, and observability.
  • A track record of writing high-quality, maintainable code across multiple services & team boundaries.
  • Solid operational experience with Kubernetes, monitoring tools (we use Grafana & Prometheus), databases (we use co*ckroachDB, Clickhouse, & Redis) and data streaming technologies (we use Kafka).
  • Strongly preferred: In-depth experience building integrated Video products using open-source libraries like ffmpeg or libav, and ideally, direct contributions to them. You also know what PSNR, VMAF & SSIM are and how to move those. Solid knowledge of different video codecs, encoding, profiles, and compatibility, and a track record of debugging, fixing & optimizing encoding-related issues end to end.
  • Excellent communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.

In our commitment to provide transparency with candidates, we openly share base pay ranges for all job postings within the United States, regardless of the state. These pay ranges are established using standardized criteria, including job function, level, and location. They're also benchmarked against similar companies in a similar stage of growth. The starting base pay for this position is between $195K-$240K . Actual pay is influenced by various factors such as location, skills, depth of experience, and internal equity.

If you don't have all of these requirements but think your experience could be a great fit, that's okay! Please apply and we can talk about what's most needed in the role.

U.S. Benefits

You'd join an amazing team from places like Google/YouTube, Amazon/Twitch, Facebook/Oculus, Reddit, Brightcove, Bain, and the BBC. We have a supportive culture that cares about both excellent work and work-life balance.

We are remote-equal, with an office space in Downtown San Francisco and London.

  • Flexible PTO + 11 company holidays
  • Weekly no-meeting days + quarterly focus weeks
  • Healthy work-life balance encouraged
  • Competitive health, dental, and vision insurance (99% employee and 60% dependent premium coverage)
  • Fertility benefits
  • FSA and HSA available
  • Short-term and long-term disability insurance
  • Group life insurance
  • Travel accident insurance
  • Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
  • Medical support concierge service
  • 401(k)
  • Paid parental leave
  • Investment in career growth through professional development stipend
  • Reimbursem*nts for headphones, cell phones, device upgrades, and SVoD services of Mux customers
  • Lunch reimbursem*nt program

Mux is an Equal Opportunity employer committed to building a diverse company. We believe diversity makes us better, and we strive to be inclusive and equitable. That’s why we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.

About the interview

Recrutier Phone Screen

Hiring Manager Screen

Technical Screen

Team Interview

About Mux

About Mux

Mux is video for developers. Our mission is to democratize video by solving the hard problems developers face when building video: video encoding and streaming (Mux Video), video monitoring (Mux Data), and more. Video is a huge part of people’s lives, and we want to help make it better.

We’re committed to building a healthy team that welcomes a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. We want people who care about our mission, are ready to grow, believe in our values (from Be Human to Turn Customers Into Fans), and want to make the people around them better.

You’ll be joining atight-knit teamwith experience at places like Google, YouTube, Twitch, Zencoder, Fastly, and more. Our founders previously started (and sold) Zencoder, an early leader in cloud video technology, and authored Video.js, the biggest HTML5 video player on the web. We organizeDemuxed, the premiere conference for video engineers in the world.

We’re backed by top investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Y Combinator. You’ll get to work with amazing companies: hundreds of startups, plus Reddit, Vimeo, Robinhood, CBSi, Discovery, PBS, and TED. Customers large and small love working with us and love our team.

We’re growing quickly and are building something big together. We’d love to hear from you!

Senior / Staff Video Software Engineer at Mux | Y Combinator (2)

Mux

Founded:2016

Team Size:140

Location:San Francisco

Founders

Senior / Staff Video Software Engineer at Mux | Y Combinator (3)

Adam Brown

Founder

Senior / Staff Video Software Engineer at Mux | Y Combinator (4)

Jon Dahl

CEO

Senior / Staff Video Software Engineer at Mux | Y Combinator (5)

Steve Heffernan

Head of Product

Senior / Staff Video Software Engineer at Mux | Y Combinator (6)

Matthew McClure

Founder

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What does a senior software engineer know? ›

A senior software engineer spearheads efforts to build software architecture, monitor and test software and make upgrades when needed. This role has extensive programming and software development knowledge and experience.

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One of the most obvious ways to level up your software engineering career is to keep learning new technologies and tools that are relevant to your domain and industry. Technology is constantly evolving, and you need to stay updated and adaptable to the changes and challenges.

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The average principal engineer age is 40 years old.

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Software Engineering is a very well paid career field. It's definitely possible to make $200k as a Software Engineer.

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What age is an average senior software engineer? Many people assume you can't work in tech beyond a certain age. However, the average age for senior software engineers ranges from approximately 37 to 42 years.

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Earnings peak in the late 40s

The late 40s represent the highest earnings of a developer's life, where the average developer earns 28.7% more than the typical 26-30 year old (the most common age range in the data), after which pay stabilizes before finally beginning to decline in the early 60s.

What is the highest salary of a senior software engineer? ›

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Mar 3, 2023

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Principal engineers are higher-level positions compared to senior engineers. The common hierarchy for these jobs from lowest to highest is: Staff engineer. Senior staff engineer.

Is 35 too old to become an engineer? ›

Am I too old to become an engineer? Age is irrelevant in engineering. Regardless of age, embrace the experience, make the most of your journey, and confidently pursue your engineering aspirations.

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Early retirement in tech is fairly common; the retirement age for most software engineers is between 45 and 60. However, many senior technologists—especially those who were forced into “early retirement” during the early stages of the pandemic lockdown—are now considering wading back into the labor pool.

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1 to 2 years$101,024
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1 more row

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These associate's degree programs generally take about two years to complete. Degree programs begin by teaching the basics of computer science theory and programming. Students then study specific software engineering topics, including systems analysis, computer architecture, networking and interface design.

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