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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for a Video Engineer

💰 $110,000 - $190,000

EngineeringMedia TechnologyStreamingVideo Processing

🎯 Role Definition

A Video Engineer is a specialized engineering professional who serves as the architect and guardian of an organization's digital video ecosystem. This role is central to the entire lifecycle of video content, from its initial ingestion and processing to its final delivery and playback on end-user devices. Blending deep expertise in software development, network engineering, and media formats, the Video Engineer designs, builds, and maintains the complex infrastructure required for both live and on-demand video streaming. They are ultimately responsible for the performance, reliability, and quality of the video experience, constantly innovating to reduce latency, improve visual fidelity, and ensure seamless playback at scale.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Software Engineer (with a focus on backend or distributed systems)
  • Broadcast Engineer
  • Network Engineer

Advancement To:

  • Senior or Staff Video Engineer
  • Video Architect
  • Manager, Video Engineering

Lateral Moves:

  • Solutions Architect (Media & Entertainment)
  • Product Manager (Video Platform)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, develop, and maintain scalable and resilient live and Video-on-Demand (VOD) processing pipelines, including transcoding, packaging, and encryption.
  • Engineer and implement adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming solutions using modern protocols such as HLS and MPEG-DASH to optimize delivery across diverse network conditions.
  • Integrate and manage Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies, including Apple FairPlay, Google Widevine, and Microsoft PlayReady, to secure premium video content.
  • Develop and optimize video and audio encoding profiles for a wide range of codecs (e.g., H.264, HEVC/H.265, AV1, AAC, Opus) to balance quality with bandwidth efficiency.
  • Build, configure, and maintain robust infrastructure for video origin servers and collaborate with CDN partners to ensure efficient, low-latency global content delivery.
  • Create and implement comprehensive monitoring and alerting systems to track Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) metrics for the entire video delivery chain.
  • Act as a subject matter expert in troubleshooting complex video delivery and playback issues, from the encoder to the client player, across web, mobile, and connected TV devices.
  • Develop custom tools and automation scripts, often using FFmpeg and scripting languages like Python or Go, to streamline media workflows and quality control processes.
  • Architect and implement low-latency streaming solutions for live events, leveraging technologies like Low-Latency HLS (LL-HLS), WebRTC, or SRT.
  • Evaluate, prototype, and integrate emerging video technologies and standards to drive continuous improvement and innovation within the video platform.
  • Manage and maintain cloud-based media services (e.g., AWS Elemental Media Services, Google Transcoder API) to ensure high availability and cost-effective operations.
  • Deeply analyze video container formats like MP4, fMP4, and MPEG-TS to ensure compatibility and performance across various playback environments.
  • Author and maintain detailed technical documentation for video systems, architectures, and operational procedures to facilitate knowledge sharing and team alignment.
  • Collaborate closely with client-side player engineering teams to define playback logic, optimize startup times, and resolve device-specific playback anomalies.
  • Perform capacity planning and performance testing to ensure the video infrastructure can reliably handle peak traffic loads during major live events or content launches.
  • Lead the technical design and implementation of dynamic ad insertion (DAI) and server-side ad insertion (SSAI) systems for monetization.
  • Investigate and resolve intricate issues related to subtitle and closed caption formats (e.g., WebVTT, TTML, CEA-608/708) and their synchronization with video.
  • Drive efforts to standardize video quality measurement and analysis using objective metrics like VMAF, PSNR, and SSIM.
  • Participate in the on-call rotation to provide tier-3 support for critical incidents impacting the video delivery platform.
  • Engage with industry forums and standards bodies to stay abreast of the evolving video technology landscape and contribute to its direction.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis related to video performance, encoding efficiency, and user engagement metrics.
  • Contribute to the organization's broader data and media technology strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units and product managers to translate high-level data and video needs into detailed, actionable engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and other agile ceremonies within the engineering team to ensure timely and predictable delivery.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep expertise in video and audio codecs, including AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265, AV1, AAC, and Opus.
  • Profound understanding of adaptive bitrate streaming protocols, particularly HLS and MPEG-DASH.
  • Hands-on experience with video processing frameworks and tools, especially FFmpeg and its libraries (libavcodec, libavformat).
  • Strong proficiency in at least one modern programming language, such as Python, Go, C++, or Rust, for automation and service development.
  • Practical experience with cloud computing platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and their native media services (e.g., AWS Elemental MediaConvert, MediaLive).
  • In-depth knowledge of video container formats like MP4, fragmented MP4 (fMP4), and MPEG-2 Transport Stream (MPEG-TS).
  • Familiarity with common Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems and encryption standards (e.g., FairPlay, Widevine, CENC).
  • Experience with Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration, configuration, and traffic management principles.
  • Competency in building and using monitoring and observability tools like DataDog, Grafana, Prometheus, or Mux to track QoS/QoE.
  • Solid understanding of core networking principles (TCP/IP, UDP, HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2) as they relate to media streaming.

Soft Skills

  • Systematic Problem-Solving: The ability to methodically deconstruct complex, multi-system issues under pressure and drive them to resolution.
  • Collaborative Spirit: A natural inclination to work closely and communicate effectively with cross-functional teams, including product, operations, and client engineering.
  • Clear Communication: The capacity to articulate intricate technical concepts clearly and concisely to both technical peers and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Attention to Detail: A meticulous and precise approach to work, understanding that small errors in the video pipeline can have a large impact on the end-user experience.
  • Accountability & Ownership: A strong sense of responsibility for the end-to-end performance, stability, and quality of the video platform.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

A Bachelor's Degree in a relevant technical field or equivalent demonstrated practical experience in a professional engineering environment.

Preferred Education:

A Master's Degree in a related discipline is highly regarded.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Broadcast Technology
  • Information Technology

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3-10+ years of professional experience in a relevant engineering role.

Preferred: Direct, hands-on experience in a high-scale streaming media environment, such as a major OTT/SVOD service, social media platform, or video technology provider. A proven track record of building or maintaining critical components of a live and/or VOD streaming infrastructure is a significant asset.

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