Software Engineer, Roku

Description

The Media Group at NBCU supports a powerhouse collection of consumer-first brands including Peacock, NBC, Bravo, NBC Sports, and NBCU International. With unequalled scale, our teams make the most out of every opportunity to collaborate and learn from one another. We’re always looking for ways to innovate faster, accelerate our growth and consistently offer the very best in consumer experience. But most of all, we’re backed by a culture of respect. We embrace authenticity and inspire people to thrive.

We're looking for a Roku Software Engineer to own and evolve our Roku channel, from the SceneGraph UI layer down to the playback pipeline and the APIs that feed it. Roku is one of the largest surfaces in our streaming footprint, and it's also the most constrained: the same channel has to feel fast on a top-tier Roku Ultra and on a five-year-old Roku Express with a fraction of the memory.

This role is for someone who treats those constraints as the interesting part of the job. You'll be measuring texture memory and node counts, chasing down rebuffer events in HLS manifests, and working with backend teams to shape the microservice responses that make a channel launch in under two seconds instead of six.

Design, build, and ship features in BrightScript and SceneGraph, with a strong bias toward maintainable, well-factored component architecture rather than monolithic screens.

Own video playback quality end to end: startup time, ABR behavior, seek responsiveness, trick play, DRM handshakes, and graceful failure and recovery.

Profile and tune channel performance against real device constraints: memory ceilings on legacy hardware, render thread contention, task node usage, image and texture budgets, and cold-start latency.

Instrument and act on QoE telemetry (startup time, rebuffer ratio, exit-before-video-start, bitrate distribution), and drive those numbers down over time.

Partner with backend teams to define and refine the microservice and BFF APIs that power the channel: catalog, playback authorization, entitlement, continue-watching, recommendations, and search.

Implement and maintain Roku platform integrations: deep linking, Roku Search and content feeds, Continue Watching, Roku Pay / Instant Signup, and the Roku Advertising Framework.

Build and maintain internal tooling and automation scripts in JavaScript/TypeScript: build and packaging steps, feed and manifest validators, release utilities, device-farm and smoke-test harnesses, and whatever else removes manual toil from the team's day.

Own the channel's CI/CD pipeline: automated builds, test execution, static analysis, artifact packaging, sideloading to test devices, and promotion through environments. You treat pipeline code as real code, with the same review and maintenance standards.

Shepherd releases through Roku channel certification, including performance and memory requirements, and manage the beta-to-production promotion process.

Establish and uphold engineering standards: code review, automated testing, static analysis, and clear documentation.

Debug production issues across the stack using the Roku debug console, profiler, ECP, and network capture, and turn root causes into durable fixes.

Requirements

• 3+ years of software engineering experience, including shipping production Roku channels with BrightScript and SceneGraph.
• Demonstrated experience with performance tuning on constrained devices. You can talk specifically about a time you cut memory usage, reduced startup latency, or eliminated frame drops, and how you measured it.
• Strong grounding in software engineering best practices: separation of concerns, testability, meaningful abstractions, code review discipline, and refactoring as a habit rather than a project.
• Hands-on experience with video playback and streaming formats: HLS and/or DASH, adaptive bitrate behavior, manifest structure, buffering strategy, and DRM (Widevine and PlayReady on Roku).
• Practical experience consuming and integrating with RESTful APIs in a microservice architecture, including pagination, caching, retry and backoff strategies, error contracts, and versioning.
• Working proficiency in JavaScript and TypeScript (Node.js) for internal tooling and build automation. You can write a maintainable CLI or script that other engineers will actually use, not just a one-off.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI, or similar), including automated testing, build artifacts, and multi-environment deployment.
• Comfort with debugging tooling and telemetry: you're at home in a debug console, a profiler, and a dashboard.
• Clear written and verbal communication, especially when explaining tradeoffs to non-client engineers.
• Preferred Qualifications
• Experience with the Node-based Roku toolchain: BrighterScript, Rooibos (or another BrightScript test framework), roku-deploy, and ropm.
• Experience with reusable workflow patterns, composite actions, or shared pipeline libraries across multiple repositories.
• Familiarity with SSAI/CSAI, VAST/VMAP, and ad-supported playback flows.
• Background in another living-room platform (tvOS, Android TV / Fire TV, Vizio, Tizen, or webOS), and an understanding of where Roku differs.
• Experience with CDNs, edge caching, and manifest manipulation.
• Familiarity with QoE analytics platforms such as Conviva, Mux, or Datadog RUM.
• Experience defining backend contracts (REST or GraphQL) alongside server teams rather than just consuming them.
• Accessibility experience: captions, audio description, and voice navigation on TV platforms.
• Hybrid: This position currently has a hybrid schedule, which requires contributing from the office a minimum of four days per week. The Company reserves the right to change in-office requirements at any time.
• This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks. Learn more about the benefits offered by NBCUniversal by visiting the Benefits page of the Careers website. Salary range: $105,000 - $145,000
• Additional Information
• NBCUniversal will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative For Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable.
• Company Description
• NBCUniversal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies. We create world-class content, which we distribute across our portfolio of film, television, and streaming, and bring to life through our global theme park destinations, consumer products, and experiences. We own and operate leading entertainment and news brands, including NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, Telemundo, NBC Local Stations, Bravo, and Peacock, our premium ad-supported streaming service. We produce and distribute premier filmed entertainment and programming through our powerhouse film and television studios, including Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and Focus Features, and the four global television studios under the Universal Studio Group banner, and operate industry-leading theme parks and experiences around the world through Universal Destinations & Experiences, including Universal Orlando Resort, home to Universal Epic Universe, and Universal Studios Hollywood. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. Visit www.nbcuniversal.com for more information.
• Our impact is rooted in improving the communities where our employees, customers, and audiences live and work. We have a rich tradition of giving back and ensuring our employees have the opportunity to serve their communities. We champion an inclusive culture and strive to attract and develop a talented workforce to create and deliver a wide range of content reflecting our world.