Software Engineer, Crunchyroll
Media Delivery
$169-211.3k
Plus performance bonus
Streaming service for anime and manga
Open for applications
Streaming service for anime and manga
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$169-211.3k
Plus performance bonus
1001+ employees
Company mission
To create experiences for anime and manga fans, and to enable them to connect through the content they love.
Role
Who you are
- 5+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems
- Proficiency in TypeScript (or another modern language) for application services and infrastructure automation
- Production experience with AWS cloud infrastructure (GCP experience is a plus)
- Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools and best practices
- Experience operating high-volume CDN architectures (e.g., Fastly, Akamai, Google Media CDN, Cloudflare)
- Solid understanding of networking fundamentals (DNS, HTTP, TLS, caching, load balancing, routing)
- Background in designing high-throughput, low-latency delivery architectures across regions and external networks
- Experience with Datadog (or similar tools) configuring metrics, logs, traces, SLOs, and alerts
- Knowledge of cloud and application security principles integrated throughout design and operations
- Proven track record of diagnosing and fixing complex production incidents across software and vendors
- Strong ownership mindset with willingness to participate in on-call rotations and incident response
- Clear technical communication and effective collaboration skills across cross-functional engineering teams
What the job involves
- As a Software Engineer III on the Media Delivery team, you will design, build, and operate highly reliable systems that stream video content to millions of Crunchyroll customers around the world
- Positioned at the intersection of software engineering, cloud infrastructure, networking, and delivery, you will build fault-tolerant media replication and delivery across multi-cloud origins and global CDNs
- You will drive maximizing availability, resilience, performance, security, and efficiency through automation and deep observability
- Architect and operate scalable content replication systems and multi-origin storage to ensure playback resilience
- Build multi-CDN delivery infrastructure to intelligently route global traffic based on performance, availability, and cost
- Design fault-tolerant AWS and GCP cloud architectures that remove single points of failure in the delivery path
- Develop high-volume networking solutions between cloud origins, CDNs, and playback services
- Automate infrastructure provisioning, deployment, and recovery using Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Implement end-to-end observability (metrics, tracing, logging, SLOs, and alerts) to rapidly resolve playback issues
- Harden platform security by proactively scanning for vulnerabilities and building secure-by-default infrastructure
- Enhance reliability using automated health detection, failover, and self-healing mechanisms
- Own full end-to-end service lifecycles, including design, deployment, on-call incident response, and continuous optimization
- Troubleshoot complex production delivery issues across software, infrastructure, networks, and vendor partners
- Collaborate with external CDN and cloud providers to optimize performance and resolve delivery bottlenecks
- Participate in design reviews and code reviews to maintain high engineering standards for scale and maintainability
- In this role, you will own and drive:
- High playback uptime and minimal user impact during infrastructure or vendor failures
- Robust multi-origin and multi-CDN automated failover capabilities
- Rapid incident detection and resolution via Datadog observability and actionable alerts
- A secure platform with minimized vulnerability risks across core services
- Reduced operational toil through IaC automation and self-healing systems
- Cost-effective infrastructure efficiency that maintains top-tier streaming quality
- Strong operational readiness, comprehensive runbooks, and clear ownership
- The Media Delivery team sits within Video Platform Engineering, driving the infrastructure that powers Crunchyroll's global streaming experience
- We build and maintain global CDN networks, cloud origins, replication pipelines, and delivery services designed for high availability, security, and low latency
- We partner closely with Content Pipeline, Content Protection, Playback, Security, and cloud partners to deliver high-quality media seamlessly to all device platforms
Our take
In recent decades, anime - encompassing Japanese, Korean, and Chinese animation has transitioned from a niche interest to a formidable industry, boasting a global market worth approximately $30B. Despite this growth, distribution has historically posed challenges, with series and films often reaching overseas audiences through disparate channels, if at all. Crunchyroll emerged to address this issue by consolidating the largest collection of anime into a single streaming service.
Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll in 2021 for $1.75B expanded the platform's reach, integrating Sony's extensive animation library into its offerings. This move also positioned Crunchyroll for heightened competition against streaming giant Netflix, known for its substantial investments in anime production and acquisition. Currently, Crunchyroll maintains an unrivalled library of anime content, boasting over 44,000 episodes, attracting over 21M paying subscribers.
While Crunchyroll initially offered a free, ad-supported tier to its vast community, it appears poised to phase out this option, transitioning to a subscription-based model for all new series. Despite this shift, the platform has implemented a global reduction in fees to stimulate subscription uptake. The success of this strategy remains to be seen, but past experiences with companies like Hulu suggest that it may drive subscription growth and mitigate piracy
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Mar 2010
$0.8m
EARLY VC
Feb 2008
$4.1m
SERIES A
Total funding: $4.9m
Company benefits
- Receive a great compensation package including salary plus performance bonus earning potential, paid annually
- Flexible time off policies allowing you to take the time you need to be your whole self
- Generous medical, dental, vision, STD, LTD, and life insurance
- Health Saving Account HSA program
- Health care and dependent care FSA
- 401(k) plan, with employer match
- Employer paid commuter benefit
- Support program for new parents
- Pet insurance and some of our offices are pet friendly!
Company HQ
Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, CA
Leadership
Kun Gao
(Co-Founder & CEO)Co-founded Crunchyroll in 2006 and served as CEO/General Manager/Board Member until 2018. Previously the founder and CTO of Frappr.com as well as a Product Engineer at HOT or NOT.
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