Software Engineer, Media Network Global Engineering - Live Streaming

TikTok Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 317,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Parental leave

Disability coverage

Job summary

TikTok Inc. in San Jose is seeking a qualified engineer to join the Media Network team, building a real-time media distributed system that underpins live streaming and RTC experiences for billions of users.

You will tackle stability, cost optimization, quality, and cross-team collaboration across large-scale distributed infrastructure, with emphasis on reliability, performance, and security.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Proficiency in Golang, C, C++, Java, or Python.
• Strong experience analyzing and optimizing complex systems for cost, stability, and quality.
• Solid understanding of live streaming technologies, CDN architectures, and multimedia processing.
• 2 years hands-on experience with large-scale production infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Stability Enhancement: design and implement resilient, decoupled systems to minimize single points of failure and improve reliability; implement automated recovery and failover mechanisms; establish change management processes to reduce risk.
• Cost Optimization: analyze infrastructure usage and spending to identify cost drivers and opportunities for savings; lead initiatives to optimize resource allocation; monitor and control infrastructure costs.
• Quality Improvement: identify issues impacting service quality and user experience; implement security measures; monitor quality metrics and drive improvements.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: partner with multiple teams to align objectives; develop and maintain SOPs for deployments, disaster recovery, and best practices; facilitate cross-team coordination.

Skills

Golang

C

C++

Java

Python

Live streaming technologies

CDN architectures

Multimedia processing

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

• 1. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 2. Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Golang, C, C++, Java, or Python.
• 3. Strong experience in analyzing and optimizing complex systems, focusing on cost-effectiveness, stability, and quality.
• 4. Solid understanding of live streaming technologies, CDN architectures, and multimedia processing.
• 5. 2 years hands on experience working with large-scale, production-level infrastructure.

Preferred Qualifications

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

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $162000 - $316800 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:

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

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