Senior Software Engineer, Backend IoT & Video Platform

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

Benefits offered by this job

Paid parking

Job summary

SmartThings is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to lead cloud service design for camera integration and edge processing. You will architect high-availability systems, leverage AWS services, and collaborate across firmware, security, and product teams to deliver seamless streaming experiences.

The role is hybrid, based in Minneapolis, with three days per week in the office and a 20% annual bonus target. Strong JVM expertise and a 5+ year backend track record are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer 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.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build backend services for Direct-to-Cloud and Edge/Matter camera integration within SmartThings.
• Scale and optimize APIs and event-driven microservices for live AV streaming and device management.
• Provide technical leadership, reviews, and mentoring to engineers on the team.
• Collaborate with firmware, matter, security, and product teams to deliver end-to-end experiences.
• Contribute to observability, monitoring, and on-call rotations to ensure reliability.

Skills

5+ years backend software engineering

JVM languages

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related

Job 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.

Department: Hub and Edge

Location: Minneapolis, MN

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

• 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