Staff Backend Engineer, Reddit

• We are looking for an experienced engineer with a proven track record of technical leadership, combining strong execution skills with the ability to set vision and roadmap strategies
• The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in image and video processing, different codex, building scalable backend media systems, and optimizing performance through observability
• BS degree in Computer Science, a similar technical field of study or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of experience as a software engineer in large-scale distributed systems
• 8+ years of hands-on, professional software development experience in one or more general purpose programming languages (Go, Python, Java, C++)
• Experienced with GraphQL, REST, HTTP, gRPC, Thrift basics, and the ability to design and implement maintainable APIs
• Experienced with distributed caching layers, and distributed large scale data storage systems like Redis
• Familiarity with image processing and delivery technologies such as image scaling, cropping, and image formats like progressive JPEG, WebP, etc
• Familiarity with HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), MPEG-DASH, MP4, and other streaming protocols, as well as video compression standards (H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP9, AV1)
• Working knowledge of CDN technologies (Fastly, Cloudfare, Cloudfront) to optimize video delivery. Experienced with domain specific language like VCL
• Strong organizational skills, the ability to prioritize tasks and to deliver projects on schedule
• Entrepreneurial spirit. You are self-directed, innovative, and biased towards action in fast-paced environments. You love to build new things and thrive in ambiguity and even failure
• Excellent communication skills. You collaborate effectively with teams in a fully remote environment and discuss complex topics with technical and non-technical audiences

Desirable

• This is a lead backend role within the Media Foundation team, essential to shaping Reddit's media experience across image and video creation, processing and delivery
• This is a high impact role where you will drive related technical & product strategy, operations, architecture, and execution for one of the largest sites in the world
• Work cross-functionally with product, design, and other engineering counterparts to execute on product and business strategy and build novel products and features that our users will love
• Architect and evolve Reddit media infrastructure to deliver scalable, high-performance solutions that set new benchmarks for the industry
• Contribute to the full development cycle: technical design, development, test, experimentation, analysis, and launch. You’ll be reviewing code and design docs, giving feedback on product specs and mocks
• Lead a team of thoughtful, fast-moving, and motivated engineers. Set and define standards that improve developer workflows, recommend best practices, and help coach and mentor engineers on the team to further their professional development
• Continuously learn and improve your technical and non-technical abilities