Senior Software Engineer, Backend IoT & Video Platform

SmartThings, Inc.; Minneapolis (MN); Hybrid; USD 117,000 - 158,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401k with employer match

Unlimited PTO

Parental leave

Education reimbursement

Parking stipend

Job summary

SmartThings, a Samsung subsidiary, is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer for the IoT Video Platform in Minneapolis. You will design cloud services connecting cameras to the SmartThings platform, architect high-availability systems on AWS, and work with firmware, matter, mobile, and security teams.

The role is hybrid (3 days/week in Minneapolis). Base pay ranges from $117,000 to $158,000 with a 20% annual bonus target, plus comprehensive benefits and parking support.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years of backend software engineering with senior contributor experience.
• Strong proficiency in JVM languages (Kotlin/Scala) and Python.
• Hands-on experience building distributed systems on AWS (EC2, K8s, Lambda, DynamoDB, ElastiCache).
• Experience with real-time streaming protocols (WebRTC) or streaming frameworks (Kafka, Kinesis, EventBridge).
• Proven track record designing, scaling, and maintaining production REST/gRPC APIs.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build backend services for Direct-to-Cloud and Edge/Matter camera integration.
• Develop high-throughput, low-latency APIs and microservices for live AV streaming and video device management.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor engineers across teams.
• Collaborate with firmware, mobile, matter, security, and product teams for end-to-end experiences.
• Contribute to observability, monitoring, and on-call rotation for reliability.

Skills

Backend systems

System design

Cross-functional collaboration

Real-time streaming

Cloud architectures

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes (K8s)

Terraform/CDK

WebRTC

Kafka/Kinesis/EventBridge

DynamoDB/ElastiCache

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Backend IoT & Video Platform

Department: Hub and Edge

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Reporting To: Namrata Garach

Description

We’re SmartThings, one of the leading IoT ecosystems in the world, creating the most effortless way for anyone to create a smart home. We're a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung with corporate offices in Minneapolis and the Bay Area.

More than 430 million people worldwide use SmartThings to control and manage their connected life. SmartThings delivers simple, powerful experiences across Samsung’s leading portfolio of phones, TVs, and appliances. We also offer the most versatile smart home experience as an open platform with a rich partner ecosystem (think IKEA, SONOS, Honeywell, and so many more). As a founding member of Matter, we are a leader in the industry to help make smart homes more secure, reliable and seamless to use. Come be a part of the leading edge of IoT innovation!

About The Team: The SmartThings Video & IoT Platform team powers the next generation of smart home experiences by integrating directly connected Audio/Video devices at massive scale. As Samsung SmartThings adopts the latest industry standards our team builds low-latency, dynamic cloud platforms supporting 1st-party and 3rd-party cameras. We primarily build event-driven distributed systems using JVM technologies (Kotlin, Scala), Python, and modern cloud-native AWS architectures.

About The Role: We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer with deep expertise in cloud architectures, real-time media streaming, and distributed systems. In this role, you will lead the design and implementation of cloud services connecting first-party and Matter-enabled cameras to the SmartThings platform. You will architect high-availability services using AWS (EC2, EKS/Kubernetes, Lambda, S3, ElastiCache, DynamoDB, EventBridge) and collaborate closely with firmware, matter, mobile, security and product engineering teams.

This role is hybrid, 3 days/week in our Minneapolis Office (on iconic St Anthony Main across from Downtown...with paid attached parking!).

The pay range for this role is $117,000 to $158,000, with an annual bonus target of 20%.

Key Responsibilities

In this role, your primary responsibilities will include the following:

• Architect & Build: Lead the backend design and implementation for Direct-to-Cloud and Edge/Matter camera integration within SmartThings.
• Scale & Performance: Build high-throughput, low-latency APIs and event-driven microservices to handle live AV streaming, clip recording, and video device management.
• Technical Leadership: Drive architectural discussions, system design reviews, and establish engineering best practices. Mentor other engineers on the team.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with firmware, mobile, matter, security, and product management teams to deliver seamless end-to-end device onboarding and streaming experiences.
• Operational Excellence: Participate in system observability setup (tracing, metrics, alerting) and join the team’s on-call rotation to ensure high availability and reliability for consumer-facing production systems.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

What You Bring On Day One (Required Qualifications)

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Comuputer Engineering or related
• 5+ years of production experience in backend software engineering, with demonstrated experience as a Senior technical contributor.
• High proficiency in JVM languages (Kotlin or Scala) as well as Python.
• Strong hands-on experience building distributed systems on AWS (EC2, K8s, Lambda, DynamoDB, ElastiCache).
• Experience with real-time video/audio streaming protocols (WebRTC) or event-driven streaming frameworks (Kafka, Kinesis, EventBridge).
• Proven track record of designing, scaling, and maintaining production REST/gRPC APIs and microservices.
• Strong system design capability, excellent communication skills, and a history of cross-functional technical collaboration.
• A passion for automating everything—from infrastructure (Terraform/CDK) to testing and deployment pipelines.

Desired Skills

• Experience with IoT protocols (Matter, Thread, MQTT, mTLS/PKI security frameworks).
• Deep experience in observability tools (Datadog, Sumo Logic, OpenTelemetry).
• Experience handling high-concurrency, low-latency media streams at scale.

SmartThings Benefits

• We offer an attractive compensation package with comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health; an HSA with employer contribution; life & disability insurance; FSAs for health and dependent care expenses; a competitive 401k with a 5% employer match, and more.
• All of our employees enjoy unlimited PTO, 12 paid holidays, and a generous parental leave policy (8 weeks fully paid parental leave and 8 more fully paid weeks for childbirth recovery leave).
• Eligible employees benefit from our education reimbursement program, and all employees enjoy access to learning resources through O’Reilly.
• Our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is embedded into our culture and our work, and everyone has frequent opportunities to join forums and groups and participate in ongoing projects.
• We offer a parking stipend to cover the monthly garage cost. EV chargers are also onsite.
• In-office catered lunches on Thursdays.
• Access to the onsite gym.

Base compensation range for this position is $117,000 to $158,000. Actual base within this range will depend on many factors including experience, skills, technical expertise and market alignment. In addition, this role is eligible for a 20% annual target bonus based heavily on individual performance.

At SmartThings, we are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible environment for all. If you require accommodations to participate in our hiring process or to perform the requirements of the job, we will work with you to meet your needs in compliance with applicable laws. Please reach out to [e-mail] and a member of our Talent Acquisition team will connect with you further!