Senior Backend Engineer — Distributed Systems (Streaming Platform)
Roku
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
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TEAMWORK MAKES THE STREAM WORK.
ROKU IS CHANGING HOW THE WORLD WATCHES TV
Roku is the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and we've
set our sights on powering every television in the world. Roku pioneered
streaming to the TV. Our mission is to be the TV streaming platform that
connects the entire TV ecosystem. We connect consumers to the content they love,
enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide
advertisers unique capabilities to engage consumers.
From your first day at Roku, you'll make a valuable - and valued - contribution.
We're a fast-growing public company where no one is a bystander. We offer you
the opportunity to delight millions of TV streamers around the world while
gaining meaningful experience across a variety of disciplines.
WHAT DOES THE TEAM WORK ON?
Roku pioneered streaming to the TV and continues to innovate and lead the
industry. While we are well-positioned to help shape the future of television –
including TV advertising – around the world, continued success relies on our
investment in digital services. Our team is a multi-disciplinary team
responsible for the architecture and implementation of services that make up
Roku's browse and discovery platform. This platform is the backbone behind The
Roku Channel, offering a wide range of free and premium content and
entertainment to millions of users in the US and around the world.
WHAT IS THE ROLE?
We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer with experience in building services
at scale. With so many people relying on us for great movies, TV, and news -
scaling, reliability, fallbacks, and automation of these scenarios are always at
the top of our mind as we continuously add features to the platform. We work
very closely with the product team and pride ourselves on quickly iterating on
features from prototypes to A/B tests to eventual release to all users. It's
still early days for this platform, with plenty of challenging and interesting
problems to work on.
The
ideal candidate will have endless curiosity and can pair a global mindset
with locally relevant execution. You should be a gritty problem solver and
self-starter who can drive programs with the product and commercial teams within
Roku and across external strategic partner organizations. The successful
candidate will display a balance of hard and soft skills, including the ability
to respond quickly to changing business needs.
HOW WILL I USE AI AT ROKU?
At Roku, we don’t just use AI, we work with it. AI agents and smart tools help
power drafts, analysis, and repetitive workflows, while our people bring
direction, judgment, and accountability. We’re looking for curious, adaptable
builders who can show how they’ve used AI or automation to move faster, raise
the bar, and scale their impact.
We value your AI skills if have built fluency across the agentic engineering
toolchain — coding harnesses like Claude Code or Cursor, MCP servers, custom
skills, or agent frameworks. And you can describe projects where you shipped
real work with these tools. You know how to drive an agent, verify its output,
and ramp on an unfamiliar codebase with an agent helping you.
WHAT ARE THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ROLE?
• Build extremely large-scale platform products and services, used both by Roku
engineers from across the company, and directly by consumers across millions
of devices
• Work with Product/Design teams to iterate and build software, taking a
concept from ideation to its production deployment and support
• Lead efforts to evaluate new technologies and continue to push for best
practices across the entire development life cycle, including code and design
reviews
• Managing project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables
• Participate in Agile development process, including scoping, technical
design, coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance
WHAT EXPERIENCE WOULD HELP SOMEONE BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS ROLE AT ROKU?
• Strong software development experience
• Java preferably - (Python nice to
have)
• Expertise in building large-scale cloud services, ideally in AWS
• Experience in the appropriate selection of data stores and analysis of
trade-offs
• Experience with in-memory caching layers such as Redis, Redis Cluster,
Memcached, or others
• Track record of monitoring the quality of deploys and troubleshooting of
production systems
• Strong knowledge of the end-to-end architecture of the web, from end-user
device to a service in a data center
• Master's degree in CS, CE or equivalent experience
#LI-PA1
WHAT'S ROKU'S APPROACH TO HYBRID WORKING?
Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams generally
work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are generally flexible for
remote work, except for employees whose specific roles or assigned office
location require five days' a week attendance.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS?
Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our
compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our
comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial
wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary
benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life,
accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension).
Employees are supported in taking time off, in accordance with local leave
policies and other personal needs to support their evolving work and life needs.
It's important to note that not every benefit is available in all locations or
for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your
recruiter.
ACCOMMODATIONS
Roku welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and provides reasonable
accommodations and adjustments in accordance with applicable law. If you require
reasonable accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please direct your
inquiries to EmployeeRelations@Roku.com
[employeerelations@roku.com?subject=Job%20Application%20Accommodations].
WHAT SHOULD I KNOW ABOUT ROKU'S CULTURE?
Roku is a great place for people who want to work in a fast-paced environment
where everyone is focused on the company's success rather than their own. We try
to surround ourselves with people who are great at their jobs, who are easy to
work with, and who keep their egos in check. We appreciate a sense of humor. We
believe a fewer number of very talented folks can do more for less cost than a
larger number of less talented teams. We're independent thinkers with big ideas
who act boldly, move fast and accomplish extraordinary things through
collaboration and trust. In short, at Roku you'll be part of a company that's
changing how the world watches TV.
We have a unique culture that we are proud of. We think of ourselves primarily
as problem-solvers, which itself is a two-part idea. We come up with the
solution, but the solution isn't real until it is built and delivered to the
customer. That penchant for action gives us a pragmatic approach to innovation,
one that has served us well since 20
02.
To learn more about Roku, our global footprint, and how we've grown, visit
https://www.weareroku.com/factsheet [https://www.weareroku.com/factsheet].
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