Senior Build & Server Engineer, Plex
Personal Media
$100-160k
Salary dependent on location. Plus stock options.
More information about location
Movie & TV streaming platform
Be an early applicant
Movie & TV streaming platform
101-200 employees
Be an early applicant
$100-160k
Salary dependent on location. Plus stock options.
More information about location
101-200 employees
Company mission
To create a global community for streaming content that people can depend on to easily discover, experience, and share all of the entertainment that matters to them.
Role
Who you are
- Solid C++ experience in a large, long-lived codebase, plus comfort with SQL/databases and the scripting (Python, shell) to automate the stuff around it
- Hands-on experience with build systems and dependency management, especially CMake and Conan. You like making complicated builds simpler, not cleverer
- You're comfortable owning a CI/CD pipeline from end to end. Experience with GitHub Actions is a plus
- Familiarity with cross-compilation and platform toolchains (Clang/LLVM, MSVC, Android NDK, musl, or similar). Some exposure to containers or infrastructure-as-code (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS) is a bonus
- You like working across different areas and with different people, and you're happy being the person who connects the application code with the infrastructure that ships it
- You are detail-oriented and focus on delivering seamless, high quality work across platforms
- You are kind, humble, helpful and enjoy getting stuff done
- You are intrinsically motivated, able to manage your time, and enjoy working with a distributed team across the globe
- You believe in asking for help and helping others when they ask, in jumping in wherever you're useful even when it's not strictly your job, and in never throwing a problem over the wall
- You are hungry to have an impact, continuously working to improve our product, process and push the team to be its best
What the job involves
- As a Senior Build & Server Engineer on the Personal Media team, you'll work across the two things that keep Plex Media Server running: the C++ codebase at the heart of the product, and the build and release pipeline that gets it out to millions of users on dozens of platforms
- You'll be part of a product team that owns both sides, working alongside not just other server and build engineers but our client engineers too, and pitching in wherever you're needed
- Some days you'll be in the PMS or FFmpeg code, other days you'll be improving how we build, package, and ship it
- Plex Media Server runs almost everywhere: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, NAS devices, and more
- That reach is only possible because we have a build system, toolchain, and CI pipeline that can target all of them
- You'll help keep that running and modernize it over time (Conan, CMake, GitHub Actions, cross-compilation toolchains), and you'll also write server code that leans on it, so the two stay in sync instead of blocking each other
- This is an engineering role, but it sits on a product team
- The engineers here have a voice in product decisions, so you won't just be handed a spec to build
- We want someone who cares about the product itself, has opinions about where it should go, and isn't shy about sharing them
- You will be part of a lean team distributed across the globe, working across many timezones
- We believe in promoting work/life balance and as such, we try to keep recurring meetings short and sparse, prioritizing asynchronous communication as much as possible
- Work in the Plex Media Server C++ codebase alongside our server engineers, building features, fixing bugs, and chipping away at tech debt
- Keep our build system and toolchain in good shape and help push it forward (Conan, CMake, Clang/MSVC/NDK, cross-compilation), so PMS builds reliably on every platform we support
- Own our CI/CD pipeline in GitHub Actions, from building and packaging through to artifact management and release automation
- Improve how we handle builds, releases, and artifacts
- That includes build tracking, release notes, and getting our build, test, and release tooling to work better together
- Work closely with other engineers across the team (build, server, client & QA) so there's as little friction as possible between writing code and getting a build out
- Help out with release engineering: cutting and packaging alpha, beta, and public builds, plus the signing and distribution around them (including Apple codesigning and notarization for the macOS builds)
Application process
- All final interviews will be in-person and onsite
- We want and will encourage you to use AI for your role here at Plex should you join us! That said, AI use will not be accepted during the interview process. If we believe you are using AI during the interview process in the following ways, we will not move forward with you for the role
- Using AI to assist in building your resume or cover letter is acceptable. However, we expect the application materials you submit to represent your qualifications and skills accurately. If we determine that these may have been misrepresented, we will not move forward
- Our interviews are designed to test your ability to demonstrate skills needed for the role you’re interviewing for. We seek to understand your interpersonal and collaborative abilities, and how that would translate into the job. We ask that you engage in our interviews without reading from or referencing AI-produced answers. If we detect that you are doing so without permission or advance disclosure, we will not move forward
Our take
As well as offering its own deep library of movies, series, and live TV channels, Plex has stepped up its product by turning into a single interface for all paid subscription services. If a user subscribes to Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire for example, they can search and access all these in one place.
Given the competition in the subscription streaming services market, as well as the common user pain points such as time waste while searching, this so-called “Discover” feature is seeing the company’s popularity soar. The fact that Plex is the first streaming company to do this serves as quite an advantage, but it may not be long until others follow suit.
Plex has been profitable since 2014, five years after the company’s launch, and has invested more recent funding into mass scaling. The rollout hasn’t been without its UX complaints, but if the company can smooth out these issues as it scales, it could enjoy a period of even more significant growth.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
49% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Jan 2024
$40m
SERIES C
Feb 2022
$20m
LATE VC
Total funding: $86m
Company benefits
- Monthly wellness stipend
- Flexible paid time off
- Paid parental leave
- Hardware stipend
- Flextime, work from anywhere
- Comprehensive health insurance (medical/dental/vision) (US employees)
- Stock options
- 401k (US employees)
- Plex for the Planet community service opportunities
Company HQ
Los Gatos, CA
Leadership
Scott Olechowski
(CPO & Co-founder)Was a co-founding advisor at plex before becoming Chief Product Officer in 2013. Served as a Manager of Business Development at both Cisco and PostX prior to this.
Keith Valory
(President & CEO)Has been in their position since 2013. Prior experience includes COO with the founding team of Bracket Computing, and 4 years in Security at CISCO.
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