Senior Data Engineer, Cloud Content Platform

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 its investment in our machine learning capabilities. Roku offers millions of options to our users: movies, episodes, news, sports, and channels from all around the world. The Roku Content Platform is key to onboarding content into the Roku ecosystem, delighting our customers. We are building a content knowledge platform that provides insights to downstream systems like Search, Recommendations, Ads, and Voice to shape customers' experiences.

What is the role?

We are seeking a highly experienced and skilled Senior Engineer to join our backend and data team. This role is crucial for designing, building, and optimizing distributed data pipelines, real-time data processing systems, and backend solutions that effectively handle large-scale data. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Java, distributed systems, and big data technologies, and a passion for solving complex problems and delivering robust solutions. We’re always in “build mode” because we’re a company of data-focused builders. Every day, you’ll look at what exists and find ways to make it better and help drive innovation.

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?

• Define architecture and technical strategy, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance at scale
• Provide technical guidance, conduct code reviews, and mentor engineers to elevate team capabilities and foster engineering excellence
• Design and implement robust distributed systems, streaming solutions, content management systems, APIs, and data pipelines that handle high-volume content operations
• Partner with Product, Operations, Business, and other engineering teams to deliver integrated solutions
• Remain significantly hands-on with critical features and architectural components
• Drive technical planning, prioritization, and execution aligned with business objectives
• Act as a key technical partner to the Engineering Manager in driving team success and technical decisions
• Champion a culture of innovation, technical excellence, and continuous improvement; establish engineering best practices
• Lead efforts in monitoring, observability, performance optimization, and production reliability at scale

What experience would help someone be successful in this role at Roku?

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with significant time in senior engineering roles
• Proven expertise in building scalable, distributed, and streaming solutions in production environments
• Deep experience with content management systems, media processing, or publishing platforms
• Expert-level proficiency in Java or Scala required; Python experience is a strong plus
• Strong expertise in distributed systems architecture, microservices, and event-driven architectures
• Deep understanding of streaming technologies (Kafka, Redpanda, or similar
• Advanced knowledge of databases (SQL/NoSQL), vector databases (e.g., Milvus), caching strategies, and data modeling at scale
• Track record of leading complex technical projects from conception to production in high-scale environments
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence technical decisions across teams and organizations
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) at enterprise scale
• Extensive experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience with search technologies (Elasticsearch, Solr, etc) or recommendation systems

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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 [email protected].

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 2002.

To learn more about Roku, our global footprint, and how we've grown, visit https://www.weareroku.com/factsheet.

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