Software Engineer, Crunchyroll
Playback Services
$169-205k
+ performance bonus
Streaming service for anime and manga
Open for applications
Streaming service for anime and manga
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$169-205k
+ 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
- Have 5+ years of professional software development experience building backend services in production environments
- Have strong experience with backend programming languages such as TypeScript, Go, or similar
- Have hands-on experience with cloud platforms like AWS or GCP and are comfortable working with distributed systems in production
- Understand video streaming fundamentals, APIs, backend service architecture, and the operational realities of delivering playback at scale
- Can independently own well-scoped projects from design to deployment and make sound technical decisions with the right stakeholder input
- Are comfortable working in systems related to content protection, entitlement, secure content access, or adjacent playback security concerns
- Can debug moderate to complex service issues and improve systems through testing, documentation, observability, and maintainable design
- Communicate clearly, collaborate effectively across functions, and proactively surface risks, trade-offs, and dependency concerns
- Are motivated by improving delivery velocity, strengthening operational coverage, and helping build redundancy in critical technical domains
What the job involves
- In the role of Video Playback Services Software Engineer III, you will report to the Senior Engineering Manager, Playback Services
- As a Software Engineer III on the Playback Services team, you will help accelerate critical initiatives aimed at reducing playback latency, bolstering streaming security, and refining the customer experience through better content availability and publishing workflows. A primary focus for this role will be advancing Content Protection / Security initiatives
- Design, build, and improve backend services and APIs that support secure, reliable video playback
- Take ownership of projects that improve content protection and security services, playback latency, streaming security, content publishing, and avails testing
- Deliver well-scoped projects from design through deployment, balancing speed, quality, and long-term maintainability
- Collaborate with product, QA, and adjacent engineering teams to ship high-quality features and operational improvements
- Strengthen the team’s ability to support and evolve content protection and security-related systems by contributing in a specialized area that is critical to future roadmap execution
- Participate in on-call and incident response, helping expand coverage and improve response effectiveness over time
- Debug and resolve moderate to complex production issues related to video delivery, entitlement, configuration, service health, or content protection / security flows
- Contribute to code reviews, design discussions, testing practices, and technical documentation to improve overall engineering quality
- Identify technical risks and dependency gaps early, then work with the right stakeholders to drive them to closure
- Help increase delivery velocity by contributing pragmatic solutions, dependable execution, and durable service improvements
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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