Lead Architect - OTT Applications & Media Engineering

STARZPLAY; Dubai; On-site; AED 300,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

STARZPLAY is a Dubai-based SVOD service seeking a Lead Architect for OTT Applications & Media Engineering to shape end-to-end streaming solutions across SVOD, AVOD, and Live delivery. You will lead architectural governance, drive modernization, evaluate new technologies, and ensure high-quality streaming experiences across devices.

Join a team working closely with Product, UX, Engineering, DevOps, and QA to establish standards, optimize playback, and advance advertising, content protection, and

Qualifications

• Experience architecting OTT/video streaming platforms.
• Strong knowledge of client/server architectures for high-scale media delivery.
• Familiarity with DRM, ad insertion, and multi-DRM environments.

Responsibilities

• Own target-state and evolving architecture across SVOD, AVOD, and Live delivery.
• Set engineering standards, design patterns, and governance across teams.
• Drive technical design and deployment of scalable OTT environments.

Skills

Mobile development

iOS Swift/SwiftUI

Android Kotlin

TV/CTV platforms

Web development

Team collaboration

Tools

ExoPlayer

AVPlayer/AVFoundation

JW Player

Spring Boot

NestJS/Express

Go (Gin/Echo)

gRPC

AWS CDK

Terraform

Job description

Lead Architect - OTT Applications & Media Engineering

STARZPLAY is a subscription-based streaming video on demand service (SVOD) headquartered in Dubai and available in 20+ countries in the MENA region. Our service streams thousands of blockbuster Hollywood movies, TV shows, documentaries, kids' entertainment and dedicated Arabic content to subscribers in the region. This is what makes us the fastest-growing SVOD service in the region.

Playco Arabia FZ LLC is a subsidiary of Playco Group. The Group mainly operates from the UAE region with the support of subsidiaries in Dubai, UAE, and Lahore, Pakistan.

Excited yet? Join our team in the UAE to play a part in making STARZPLAY the fastest-growing Entertainment & Media service in the region!

The role:

As an Application Architect, you will lead in-depth technical discovery sessions by establishing the engineering best practices, code quality standards, and documentation guidelines for development teams. Design comprehensive system architectures and run iterative workshops with stakeholders to lock in project scope, always architecting with the final end-state in mind.

Working closely with Product, UX, Engineering, DevOps, Platform Services, Video Engineering, AdTech, Data, and QA teams, you will establish technical standards, drive modernization initiatives, evaluate new technologies, and ensure the successful delivery of high-quality streaming experiences across all supported devices.

Core Responsibilities

• Own the target-state and evolving architecture across SVOD, AVOD, and Live delivery product lines, ensuring consistency across content, delivery, and monetization layers.
• Set engineering standards, design patterns, and architectural governance (ADRs, review boards) across all development teams.
• Move seamlessly from high-level architecture to low-level implementation by driving the technical design and deployment of scalable OTT environments, transforming architecture blueprints into highly resilient, production-ready streaming solutions.
• Ensure smooth user experiences across diverse environments, including LG webOS, Samsung Tizen, game consoles, and mobile operating systems.
• Establish engineering best practices, code quality standards, and documentation guidelines for development teams.
• Oversee video playback optimization, memory management, and both client-side and server-side advertising integrations.

Technical Skills

• Mobile: Native iOS (Swift/SwiftUI, AVFoundation) and Android (Kotlin, Jetpack Compose); cross-platform options like React Native or Flutter if the org shares codebases across platforms
• Smart TV / CTV: Tizen (Samsung), webOS/Enact (LG), Vidaa (Hisense), Android TV/Google TV, tvOS, Fire TV, plus LightningJS, VanillaJS or React Native for TV, which many OTT platforms use to share one codebase across multiple smart TV SDKs instead of writing native apps per vendor
• Console: PlayStation SDK, Xbox UWP/GDK
• Web: React or Angular for the web player app, often with Next.js for SSR/SEO on the marketing/browse pages

Video Player / Playback Frameworks

• ExoPlayer (Android/Android TV), foundational, given how much ad-transition and buffering debugging tends to run through it
• AVPlayer/AVFoundation (iOS/tvOS)
• Commercial player SDKs: Bitmovin, JW Player, useful if the org licenses rather than builds player tech
• Spring Boot (Java) or NestJS/Express (Node.js) for catalog, entitlement, and subscription services
• Go (Gin/Echo) where high-throughput, low-latency services matter (e.g., session validation, live event traffic)
• gRPC for internal service-to-service communication at scale

Ad Insertion (SSAI/CSAI) Frameworks

• Google IMA SDK (VAST/VMAP) for client-side ad insertion
• FreeWheel or other server-side ad-stitching platforms - critical for AVOD and live sports ad breaks

DRM / Content Protection SDKs

• Widevine CDM, FairPlay Streaming SDK, PlayReady SDK
• Multi-DRM abstraction layers (e.g., JWP, InSys) for a DRM packaging
• AWS CDK, CloudFormation, or Terraform for reproducible media infrastructure (MediaLive/MediaPackage/MediaTailor stacks, CDN config)
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins

Why work at STARZ PLAY?

At STARZ PLAY we look for BOLD, CREATIVE, and INNOVATIVE individuals that have a passion for technology. We offer a competitive compensation package and an environment that is constantly evolving and exposing you to new market trends and innovations while giving you a chance to contribute to our exciting platform. If you are a problem solver and visionary thinker, then come join us at STARZ PLAY!