Sr. Backend Engineer - Xumo

Xumo, a joint venture between Comcast and Charter Communications, was formed to develop and offer a next-generation streaming platform for the entire entertainment industry. The company consists of three primary lines of business: Xumo devices, Xumo Play, and Xumo Enterprise. Powered by Comcast’s global entertainment platform, Xumo devices feature a world-class user interface with universal voice search capabilities, making it easy for consumers to find and enjoy their favorite streaming content. Xumo Play is a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service offering hundreds of linear channels and on-demand options. Xumo Enterprise provides tools and services for content creators, distributors, and advertisers to make FAST content more accessible.

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Senior Backend Engineer to lead the design, development, and integration of backend systems for our cutting-edge video streaming platform.
As a Senior Backend Engineer on the Xumo Software Engineering Team, you will play a key role in building and optimizing the backend infrastructure that powers our video streaming services. This includes handling and processing video content from various content partners to ensure seamless delivery of high-quality video streams to millions of viewers across streaming devices.

Job Description

The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in backend server development, particularly in video streaming technologies, and a strong ability to design technical solutions that meet business requirements. Collaboration with product and operations teams to ensure the platform’s performance, scalability, and reliability will be critical to your success in this role. 

Responsible for designing, developing, implementing and analyzing product specifications for application programming interface and data layers across a wide range of software products and platforms. Within a squad of developers, a backend engineer will be a technical expert on several features, application programming interfaces, and practices. Works closely with product owners and work with developers across multiple teams within the same domain. Integrates knowledge of business and functional priorities. Acts as a key contributor in a complex and crucial environment. May lead teams or projects and shares expertise.

• Position is office based in Philadelphia, PA, Englewood, CO or Irvine, CA- 4 days on-site & 1 day remote.

Java Application Development for Video Streaming Backend Systems

• Develop backend systems for video streaming that deliver video streams and metadata, enabling seamless communication between API servers and client applications using formats like JSON, RSS, and HLS.
• Build and enhance recommendation pipelines to deliver personalized content recommendations, including data pipeline ETL processes for the video streaming platform.
• Design data workflows, system architecture, database schemas, and error-handling mechanisms to ensure reliable delivery of video streams, metadata, and recommendations.
• Utilize cloud environments such as Google Cloud and AWS to deploy and manage backend services, leveraging Kubernetes and cloud-managed databases.
• Create test cases, conduct thorough verifications, and document system specifications for quality assurance and scalability.

Lead Architecture, Design, and Development of Video Streaming Backend Systems

• Collaborate with product and operations teams to gather requirements for feature updates and new functionalities, creating comprehensive technical documentation, including diagrams, to guide implementation.
• Work with cross-functional teams to conceptualize and prototype new features, translating business and product needs into scalable and maintainable backend solutions.
• Develop robust backend pipelines for video ingestion, content scheduling, and video catalog exports to support a high-quality streaming experience.

Plan and Manage Backend Development for Video Streaming

• Coordinate with server and client teams to define and prioritize development requirements, ensuring alignment on the best approaches for scalability, performance, and maintainability.
• Drive decisions on technical solutions and feature enhancements to extend backend functionality, optimize reusable components, and improve system performance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years’ experience of building backend servers (Java)
• 5+ years’ experience of building web service APIs (REST/SOAP) and HTTP/SSL protocol
• 5+ years’ experience of operating database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MongoDB)
• 5+ years’ experience of working with Linux-based operation system (CentOS, OSX)
• Strong experience developing microservices (Docker) on Kubernetes
• Strong experience with operating servers on cloud-based environments (Google Cloud, AWS, Azure)
• Strong leads with designing, implementation skills to approach the solution for any new features or problem solving
• Self-starter to able to work with minimal supervision for high quality output

Highly Preferred Experiences

• Experience manipulating video contents (content metadata, caption file, video format file, etc.)
• Knowledge of various video formats: HLS, MP4, Mpeg-Dash
• Experience developing scalable and highly available applications
• Experience with message queue transactions for server communication (RabbitMQ, Kafka)
• Experience of content recommendation systems

Core Responsibilities

• Analyzes user and product requirements to design system flow and work processes.
• Develops data storage models based on functional requirements.
• Defines application programming interface access patterns and service integration touchpoints.
• Partners with quality assurance to document integration and test plan.
• Follows software development life cycle to implement new features through substantial programming effort.
• Creates integration tests that run with every code commit.
• Develops automation of service consumption.
• Defines and iterates on configuration parameters to allow software and services to best meet system needs.
• Builds out monitoring and alerting for live application programming interfaces and services.
• Repairs, restores, and repaves backend services.
• Maintains operation stability and corporate standards.
• Works with security team to follow best practices and close vulnerabilities.
• Documents and maintains defects and enhancements in the company issue management system.
• Consistent exercise of independent judgment and discretion in matters of significance.
• Regular, consistent and punctual attendance. Must be able to work nights and weekends, variable schedule(s) as necessary.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Employees at all levels are expected to:
Understand our Operating Principles; make them the guidelines for how you do your job.
Own the customer experience - think and act in ways that put our customers first, give them seamless digital options at every touchpoint, and make them promoters of our products and services.
Know your stuff - be enthusiastic learners, users and advocates of our game-changing technology, products and services, especially our digital tools and experiences.
Win as a team - make big things happen by working together and being open to new ideas.
Be an active part of the Net Promoter System - a way of working that brings more employee and customer feedback into the company - by joining huddles, making call backs and helping us elevate opportunities to do better for our customers.
Drive results and growth.
Respect and promote inclusion & diversity.
Do what's right for each other, our customers, investors and our communities.
Disclaimer:
This information has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees in this role. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications.

Skills

Back-End Development, CentOS, Java, MySQL, RESTful APIs, Software Development

Compensation

This job can be performed in California, and Colorado with a Pay Range of $132,826.27 - $208,295.74

Comcast intends to offer the selected candidate base pay dependent on job-related, non-discriminatory factors such as experience. Base pay is one part of the Total Rewards that Comcast provides to compensate and recognize employees for their work.    Most sales positions are eligible for a Commission under the terms of an applicable plan, while most non-sales positions are eligible for a Bonus.  Additionally, Comcast provides best-in-class Benefits to eligible employees.  We believe that benefits should connect you to the support you need when it matters most, and should help you care for those who matter most.  That’s why we provide an array of options, expert guidance and always-on tools, that are personalized to meet the needs of your reality – to help support you physically, financially and emotionally through the big milestones and in your everyday life. Please visit the compensation and benefits summary on our careers site for more details.

The application window is 30 days from the date job is posted, unless the number of applicants requires it to close sooner or later.

Education

Bachelor's Degree (Required)

While possessing the stated degree is preferred, Comcast also may consider applicants who hold some combination of coursework and experience, or who have extensive related professional experience.

Certifications (if applicable)

Relevant Work Experience

7-10 Years

Comcast is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.