Software Engineer (L5) - Cloud Games Transport R&D

At Netflix, our mission is to entertain the world. Together, we are writing the next episode - pushing the boundaries of storytelling, global fandom and making the unimaginable a reality. We are a dream team obsessed with the uncomfortable excitement of discovering what happens when you merge creativity, intuition and cutting-edge technology. Come be a part of what’s next.

The Open Connect organization is a critical group within Netflix that builds and manages a global Content Delivery Network that delivers all of Netflix’s streaming video, including Live content, Cloud Gaming, and Advertising. Our nascent cloud gaming service delivers entertainment using real-time, ultra low-latency network transport technologies.

We are looking for a senior software engineer with experience designing & implementing highly-interactive, ultra-low latency, bi-directional streams over the public Internet. In particular, you have a deep understanding of how the dynamically varying characteristics of internet paths influence the design and implementation of performant cloud gaming transport protocols.

You will help refine and improve our understanding of network path characteristics (including in-home WiFi behavior, bufferbloat mitigation on shared access links, and so forth); refine and import our heuristics for rate & latency estimation, rate adaptation, congestion control, and loss recovery for RTP-based media streams; collaborate with colleagues to implement and deploy new ideas in our server-side transport stack; and work closely with server, client and data analytics colleagues to improve our lab-based and production (A/B) testing techniques for evaluating service performance.

In this role, you will have the opportunity to directly impact an emerging area of business.  We provide the freedom to execute, learn and pivot, and the responsibility to be self directed, collaborative and insightful.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Experience identifying and solving highly complex transport problems that are open-ended or ambiguous and result in significant business or technical impact.

• Experience designing, implementing and deploying WebRTC-like transport stacks  for interactive, ultra low-latency streaming applications.

• Familiarity with how low-latency, two-way media flows over IP networks interact with WiFi paths, bufferbloat, active queue management, and concurrent TCP-like traffic.

• Practical understanding of modern strategies for balancing network congestion, goodput, latency and reliability in support of interactive, ultra low-latency streaming.

• Experience using network lab environments for controlled data networking experiments exploring large, multi-parameter test spaces. Experience using A/B testing methodologies for transport stack performance testing in production.

• An ability to articulate for diverse audiences the technical and business implications of performance measurement experiments executed both in the lab and in production.

• Experience with modern tools and scripting languages used for network traffic capture, test orchestration, post-capture analysis and presentation.

You will be successful in this role if you:

• Have the ability to define and self-manage cross-functional projects fueled by ambiguous questions. 

• Are a self-starter, curious and not afraid to ask when in doubt.

• Are a quick learner and excited about learning new technologies.

• Advocate software craftsmanship, take pride in your work and enjoy taking full ownership of projects from conception to deployment in high-reliability production infrastructure.

Nice to have:

• Experience with software development in Linux or closely-related environments.

• Experience using hardware encoding pipelines as content sources for RTP streams, particularly in virtual machine and/or containerized environments.

• Experience partnering with remote engineering or product teams across multiple time zones.

• Masters or Bachelors degree in a relevant science or engineering discipline.

Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs. Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more details about our Benefits here.

Netflix is a unique culture and environment. Learn more here.

Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.