Senior Software Engineer, Media Network Global Engineering - Live Streaming

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 218,000 - 480,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Wellbeing benefits

10 holidays per year

10 sick days per year

17 days Paid Personal Time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a senior engineering leader for the Media Network team in San Jose, tasked with building a real-time distributed media platform supporting live streaming and RTC for billions of users.

You will drive stability, cost optimization, and quality improvements across large-scale infrastructure, while collaborating with multiple teams to standardize deployments, DR, and operational best practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language (Golang, C, C++, Java, or Python).
• 5 years of hands-on experience with large-scale production infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of live streaming techniques, CDN architectures, and multimedia processing.

Responsibilities

• Stability enhancements: design resilient, decoupled systems and implement automated recovery and failover.
• Cost optimization: analyze infrastructure usage, drive storage/compute efficiency, monitor costs.
• Quality improvements: address playback performance, security, and lifecycle management; monitor quality metrics.
• Cross-team collaboration: work with multiple teams, establish SOPs for deployments and DR, drive coordination across teams.

Skills

Golang

C

C++

Java

Python

Live streaming knowledge

Cost optimization

System performance analysis

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team: The Media Network team is building an industry-leading real-time media distributed system that plays a critical role in TikTok’s live streaming and RTC scenarios. Serving billions of users worldwide, our network is among the largest real-time media networks globally. Join the Media Network team to work on large-scale distributed systems and help deliver an exceptional real-time media experience to TikTok users.

• Stability Enhancement, including: Design and implement resilient, decoupled systems to minimize single points of failure and improve overall system reliability; Implement automated recovery and failover mechanisms to ensure continuous service availability during incidents; Establish and enforce change management processes to reduce risks associated with configuration changes and prevent outages.
• Cost Optimization, including: Analyze infrastructure usage and spending to identify key cost drivers and opportunities for savings; Lead initiatives to optimize resource allocation, including storage and compute efficiency, to maximize efficiency and reduce expenses; Monitor and control infrastructure costs to prevent waste and ensure budget adherence.
• Quality Improvement, including: Identify and address issues impacting service quality and user experience, such as playback performance and content lifecycle management; Implement security measures to protect systems from common threats and vulnerabilities; Collaborate with teams to monitor quality metrics and drive continuous improvements.
• Cross-Team Collaboration, including: Partner with multiple teams to align objectives and deliver integrated solutions; Develop and maintain standard operating procedures for deployments, disaster recovery, and operational best practices; Facilitate process improvements to enhance coordination, efficiency, and accountability across teams.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Golang, C, C++, Java, or Python.
• Strong experience in analyzing and optimizing complex systems, focusing on cost-effectiveness, stability, and quality.
• Solid understanding of live streaming technologies, CDN architectures, and multimedia processing.
• 5 years of hands on experience working with large-scale, production-level infrastructure.

Preferred Qualifications

• Excellent troubleshooting and problem-solving skills with the ability to quickly identify and resolve complex issues.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills to work effectively across diverse functional teams.
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and adapt to changing priorities.

About TikTok

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.

We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/RA-request

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $218400 - $480000 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

• Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
• Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems;
• Exercising sound judgment.