Lead Software Engineer - Android

Paramount Pictures; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 156,800 - 235,200; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Attractive compensation and benefits

Generous paid time off

On-site and virtual engagement events

Life at Paramount

Job summary

Paramount Pictures seeks a Lead Software Engineer - Android to drive architecture, design, and end-to-end delivery of scalable Android applications. You will lead a team, partner with ML and data science, and mentor engineers across the stack.

The role emphasizes AI-powered development with Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code, while maintaining high standards for performance, reliability, and code quality in a fast-paced entertainment environment.

Qualifications

• BS in CS/Software Eng or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years in software development with 6+ years Android-focused.
• Led multiple large-scale Android projects in Agile environments.
• Strong architectural ownership and technical decision making.
• Excellent communication with business partners and stakeholders.
• Eye for quality and user experience.
• Ability to translate business objectives into software requirements.

Responsibilities

• Drive architectural direction and design of Android apps.
• Establish coding, testing, and deployment best practices.
• Mentor mid- and senior-level engineers and lead reviews.
• Collaborate with product managers and design teams.
• Integrate AI tools and ML features into products.
• Ensure performance, stability, and quality across apps.
• Engage in cross-functional initiatives and code reviews.

Skills

Android Development

Kotlin

Java

Android Architecture

MVVM

MVI

Clean Architecture

Compose UI

Gradle

Android Studio

RESTful APIs

Unit Testing

CI/CD

Performance Tuning

Mentoring

Leadership

AI Literacy

Copilot Cursor Claude

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Android Studio

Gradle

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

ExoPlayer

Job description

Select how often (in days) to receive an alert:

#WeAreParamount on a mission to unleash the power of content… you in?

We’ve got the brands, we’ve got the stars, we’ve got thepowerto achieve our mission to entertain the planet – now all we’re missing is… YOU! Becoming a part of Paramount means joining a team of passionate people who not only recognize the power of content but also enjoy a touch of fun and uniqueness. Together, we co-create moments that matter – both for our audiences and our employees – and aim to leave a positive mark on culture.

Position: Lead Software Engineer - Android

Location: US - In Office (LA, NY, SF)

About This Role

Paramount is looking for a hardworking Lead Software Engineer - Android to develop cohesive solutions to content based technical obstacles. The role will be end-to-end from understanding the goals and roadmaps of the product and engineering teams, through design and architecture of any solution and the delivery and maintenance of those platforms once in place.

This role involves engineering for the Android platform and developing AI. You will use AI agents and coding tools like Cursor, Claude Code, and Copilot daily. You will also collaborate with ML and data science teams on features for clients.

We are seeking someone who will participate in the definition of product requirements, being able to articulate how the engineering effort will align to those requirements and provide accurate estimates of the effort. You will also be involved in platform architectural discussions and initiatives paving the way for optimizations and performance alongside.

You will also be working with a team of engineers through the development process, including implementing standards around code, tooling, metrics, progress reporting and interactions with the QE team to ensure a quality first approach to any work.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership:

Drive the architectural direction and design of Android applications

Establish best practices for coding, testing, and deployment

Evangelize new tools, frameworks, and processes for continued innovation and development efficiency

Prepare architectural diagrams and technical specifications for the engineering team to deliver high quality, maintainable software

Lead architectural discussions around feature development and software development best practice

Involvement in performance and playback optimizations, overall app stability and profiling

Application Development:

Design, develop, test, and deploy new solutions as well as maintaining, integrating and improving existing solutions using modern technologies and industry best practices

Ensure robust performance, responsiveness, and quality of applications, troubleshooting and debugging as needed

AI-Integrated Development:

Leverage AI-driven coding assistants like Copilot, Cursor, or Claude as a core component of the daily engineering lifecycle, including architectural design, implementation, and refactoring

Partner with technical leadership to establish and optimize safe, high-impact practices for utilizing AI tools within the development team

Drive cross-functional initiatives to integrate LLM and ML capabilities into product features, such as advanced search, discovery, and personalized content understanding

Mentor mid- and senior-level engineers, sharing technical expertise and guiding professional growth

Participate in code reviews to maintain code quality and consistency across the team

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

Work closely with product managers, designers, and other engineering teams to clarify requirements

Coordinate with backend services and APIs to ensure seamless integration and feature delivery

Process Improvement:

Enhance software development processes and policies, driving continuous improvement in code quality, development speed, and overall team productivity

Stay current with emerging Android technologies, libraries, and trends, recommending their adoption where beneficial

Ownership and Accountability:

Partner closely with the Android Engineering Manager on development strategies

Ensure the application is highly responsive and performant

Enable engineers to deliver mission-critical features and enhancements

Identify technical risks and potential bottlenecks, proposing solutions to mitigate them

Skills

Expertise in Android Development:

Proficient in Kotlin and Java, with a solid understanding of the Android SDK and different Android versions

Deep knowledge of Architecture Patterns and Material Design (e.g., MVVM, MVI, Clean Architecture, Compose UI)

Experience using Gradle and Android Studio

Experience following and implementing software design patterns

Proven ability to design scalable, high-performing, and secure Android applications

Experience integrating complex RESTful APIs and third-party libraries

Testing and Quality Assurance:

Solid experience in writing unit tests, UI tests, and automated tests using frameworks like JUnit, Espresso, and others

Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions)

Performance Optimization:

Ability to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, including memory leaks, slow rendering, and network inefficiencies

Skilled in using performance profiling and optimizations (e.g., Android Profiler, Leak Canary)

Leadership and Communication:

Ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to engineers, stakeholders, and executives

Strong mentoring skills, with a track record of developing and inspiring high-performing teams

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)

7+ years of professional software development experience, with at least 6 years focused on Android development

Demonstrated history of leading and delivering multiple large-scale Android projects in a production environment with multiple scrum teams in an agile process

Proven track record of architectural ownership and driving technical decisions

You should have strong interpersonal skills. You will need to facilitate conversations with business partners. This includes discussions during project definition, business requirements definition, and functional design sessions.

Eye for quality and user experience

Translate business objectives into software requirements

Desired Qualifications

Hands on software development on the Android/Android TV/Amazon/Amazon Fire TV platform

Have shipped one or more apps to the Google Play and/or Amazon app store

Experience working remotely with globally distributed and multiple interdisciplinary teams

Experience working on Android projects with multi-module architecture

Experience with assistive technologies such as JAWS/VoiceOver, ZoomText, and keyboard-only input methods

Experience evaluating front-end code against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Experience in creating accessible front-end designs. This includes using TalkBack properties in XML, like labelFor and contentDescription. It also involves making TalkBack announcements, scaling text dynamically, and ensuring responsive design.

AI Literacy

Hands-on, daily use of AI coding assistants such as Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent, with a clear sense of what these tools are good and bad at

Comfort writing effective prompts, structuring context, and evaluating AI-generated diffs critically before they land in the codebase

Working understanding of LLMs, embeddings, retrieval, and prompt engineering, enough to design client integrations and reason about latency, cost, and failure modes

You should have useful experience in shipping or prototyping at least one product feature that uses machine learning (ML) or large language models (LLM). This could include features such as search, ranking, personalization, content understanding, or in-app assistants.

Judgment about responsible AI use: privacy, IP, attribution, and when a human review gate is required

Bonus Skills (Nice To Have)

Experience with Video Streaming (HLS / MPEG-DASH)

Experience working with ExoPlayer

Widevine DRM knowledge

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Hiring Salary Range: $156,800.00 - 235,200.00.

The hiring salary range for this position applies to New York, California, Colorado, Washington state, and most other geographies. Starting pay for the successful applicant depends on a variety of job-related factors, including but not limited to geographic location, market demands, experience, training, and education. The benefits available for this position include medical, dental, vision, 401(k) plan, life insurance coverage, disability benefits, tuition assistance program and PTO or, if applicable, as otherwise dictated by the appropriate Collective Bargaining Agreement. This position is bonus eligible.

What We Offer:

• Attractive compensation and comprehensive benefits packages. Check out our full list of benefits here:https://www.paramount.com/careers/benefits
• Generous paid time off.
• An exciting and fulfilling opportunity to be part of one of Paramount’s most dynamic teams.
• Opportunities for both on-site and virtual engagement events.
• Unique opportunities to make meaningful connections and build a vibrant community, both inside and outside the workplace.
• Explore life at Paramount: https://www.paramount.com/careers/life-at-paramount

Paramount is an equal opportunity employer (EOE) including disability/vet.

At Paramount, the spirit of inclusion feeds into everything that we do, on-screen and off. From the programming and movies we create to employee benefits/programs and social impact outreach initiatives, we believe that opportunity, access, resources and rewards should be available to and for the benefit of all. Paramount is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, and Veteran status.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access https://www.paramount.com/careers as a result of your disability. You can request reasonable accommodations by calling 212.846.5500 or by sending an email to [e-mail]. Only messages left for this purpose will be returned.