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Sr. Backend Software Engineer (Infrastructure)

San Francisco, CA

At Philo, we’re a group of technology and product people who set out to build the future of television, marrying the best in modern technology with the most compelling medium ever invented — in short, we’re building the TV experience that we’ve always wanted for ourselves. In practice this means leveraging cloud delivery, modern tech stacks, machine learning, and hand-crafted native app experiences on all of our platforms. We aim to deliver a rock solid experience on the streaming basics, while cooking up next generation multi-screen and multi-user playback experiences.

Senior Backend Software Engineer (Infrastructure)

The core infrastructure at Philo is the foundation for a 24/7 live and on-demand streaming product serving video to our growing subscriber base. It provides a platform that enables groups across the company – such as video delivery, product, support, and analytics – to do their best work easily and smoothly. Our systems are highly distributed, horizontally scalable and run in the cloud on Kubernetes. We continuously test and deploy our code and closely monitor the health and performance of our production environment.

We are seeking an enthusiastic Infrastructure Software Engineer to help us build and improve the core infrastructure at Philo.

Responsibilities:

  • Manage the core infrastructure at Philo. This infrastructure is relied on by a large subscriber base of Philo’s product as well as internal stakeholders across the company.
  • Design, build, and maintain cloud infrastructure components (AWS and Kubernetes) using a combination of in-house technology and open source software.
  • Design, build, and maintain monitoring and observability systems that enable Philo engineers and the support team to gain insight and to discover and debug issues.
  • Design, build, and maintain CI/CD systems enabling Philo engineers to create pipelines to test and deploy their code.
  • Configure CDNs and video pipelines to transcode and deliver vast amounts of video data to our customers.
  • Establish tools, methods and best practices for other Philo engineers interfacing with the Philo infrastructure. Ensure reliability, security, and scalability of the Philo platform. Promote Infrastructure as Code.
  • Work closely with other Philo engineers to deploy and instrument software systems.
  • Drive evaluation, selection, and integration of third-party vendor systems and work closely with vendors to configure and manage them.

Qualifications:

  • 8+ years of software development and infrastructure management experience.
  • Experience working with distributed systems and an understanding of microservices architecture principles.
  • Experience with Linux and containerized (i.e. Docker) environments.
  • Experience managing cloud computing environments (AWS or GCP) and configuring cloud services e.g. CloudWatch, Route 53, RDS, ElastiCache, SQS, ALB/NLB/ELB, VPC networking, IAM security.
  • Experience with container orchestration platforms (i.e. Kubernetes).
  • Strong understanding of networking and internet application protocols including, but not limited to TCP/IP, DNS, and HTTP.
  • Strong understanding of network and application security principles and best practices.
  • Familiarity or hands-on experience with configuration management systems and Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Terraform, CloudFormation).
  • Familiarity or hands-on experience with Monitoring/Observability systems (e.g. Prometheus, Grafana, TICK/InfluxDB, Fluentd, ELK, Datadog).
  • Familiarity or hands-on experience with CI/CD automation systems e.g. Jenkins, Gitlab.
  • Experience with relational and non-relational databases and familiarity with modern data warehousing and querying.
  • Proficient in writing, testing, and profiling software in Golang, Javascript/Typescript, C++, Ruby, Python or similar programming languages.
  • Experience and aptitude for collaborating and communicating with internal and external stakeholders in both business and technical roles.

A strong candidate may also have one or more of these:

  • Experience configuring CDNs for delivering static or media assets.
  • Familiarity with video technology, e.g. streaming protocols such as MPEG-DASH, HLS, MPEG TS, fMP4, CMAF, Zixi, and SRT or cloud video transcode services such as AWS Elemental and Azure Media Services.
  • Experience building analytics platforms and data pipelines.

We are language agnostic, but most of our backend code is written in Golang, Ruby and Typescript, with some C++ and Python. Our services run on Kubernetes, and we practice continuous deployment across all of our systems.

More about Philo

At Philo, we’re a company that puts people first—both our subscribers and our team. Our philosophy is to empower our colleagues to do their best work while supporting each other in pursuing shared goals. We value pragmatism, pride in our work, and passion. Transparency and openness are fundamental to our company culture. We are committed to diversity and inclusion as we grow the Philo team and shape the future of TV. We believe that a diverse set of voices and perspectives on our team enables us to innovate faster and create the best experience for our subscribers.

Philo offers access to top-rated networks, including AMC, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Discovery, Food Network, Hallmark, HGTV, History, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, MTV, Nickelodeon, OWN, VH1, WE tv, and more, along with groundbreaking originals and blockbuster movies included with AMC+. Our service also includes 80+ free channels and premium add-ons like STARZ and MGM+.

Our extensive library boasts over 75,000 titles, and our unlimited DVR allows users to save their favorite shows and movies for up to a year, skipping ads for a seamless viewing experience. Stream on up to three devices simultaneously, whether on your phone, tablet, laptop, or TV using Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, Samsung TV, Android TV, Vizio TV, or Chromecast.

Philo is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York and Cambridge, MA. Our leadership team includes a co-founder of Facebook and alums from Meraki and HBO, backed by NEA and industry partners like Discovery, Viacom, AMC, and A&E.

Join us at Philo and be part of a team that's shaping the future of TV!

Status: Full-time
Location: San Francisco, CA
Compensation: Includes annual salary between $162K-$210K depending on experience and location, company stock options and health benefits.

We value a diverse and inclusive workplace and we welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, skills, and perspectives. Philo is an equal opportunity employer. We believe that everyone does their best work when they are supported by each other and the company, and we offer a generous set of benefits to make sure the Philo team is happy and healthy. Here is a sampling of the benefits we offer our team:

  • Full health, dental and vision coverage for you and your family
  • 401(k) plan with employer contributions (we match 100% of deferrals up to 3% of pay and 50% of the next 2% of pay)
  • Flexible working hours
  • Up to 20 weeks of fully paid parental leave
  • Unlimited paid time off for vacation and sick leave
  • $2,000 annual vacation bonus (we pay you to take a two week vacation)
  • $5,250 annually for professional development and educational assistance
  • $1,250 annual home office + TV stipend during first year of employment ($250 annually thereafter)
  • $500/month ($6,000/year) bonus for employees who commit to working at least 3 days per week in our offices, plus generous commuter benefits ($315/month towards transit, rideshare, bike rental, or parking at our HQ office in San Francisco)
  • Free Gympass subscription — an all-in-one corporate benefit that gives employees the largest selection of gyms, studios, classes, training and wellness apps
  • Dog-friendly office
  • And much more!

For California Residents: Philo’s CCPA Notice at Collection – Employees, Applicants, Owners, Directors, Officers and Contractors

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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