Staff Backend Engineer - Streaming

Verkada; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Visa sponsorship

Job summary

Verkada, the leading cloud-managed physical security platform, is seeking a Backend Engineer (Video Streaming) to design scalable backend systems for millions of devices and real-time video.

You will build cloud-native services, optimize data pipelines, and collaborate with product, hardware, and infra teams to deliver secure, reliable streaming at scale.

Join a fast-growing company that sponsors visas and values innovation, end-to-end ownership, and impact across thousands of organizations.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend development experience in Go or Python.
• 7+ years of experience designing and building large-scale, resilient distributed systems.
• 6+ years of experience with cloud infrastructure, containerization, and deployment automation (AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, or similar).
• 6+ years of experience with databases, queues, blob storage, and distributed systems fundamentals.
• Systems design mindset with ability to simplify complex workflows and deliver scalable solutions.
• Strong emphasis on performance, reliability, and security.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with ownership of problems end to end.
• Bonus: experience with IoT devices, real-time streaming technologies, or multimedia formats such as H.264/H.265, FFmpeg, or similar pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Design scalable, cloud-native streaming services powering video and audio for millions of devices.
• Architect and optimize real-time data pipelines connecting cameras, cloud, and users with low latency.
• Build and operate high-performance video transcoding/muxing service that is fault-tolerant and scalable.
• Define and refine SOA, APIs, and interfaces to enable scalable streaming.
• Develop clean, reliable, and testable backend code under heavy load.
• Collaborate with product, hardware, and infra teams to deliver new video capabilities.
• Drive performance, reliability, and engineering best practices.

Skills

Go/Python

Distributed systems

Cloud infra

System design

Performance & security

Data pipelines

Video streaming

IoT/Streaming

Tools

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Verkada is transforming how organizations protect their people and places with an integrated, privacy-sensitive AI-powered platform that includes solutions for video security, access control, air quality sensors, alarms, intercoms, and visitor management.

We’ve got momentum in the market: more than 30,000 customers (including 100+ of the Fortune 500), a $5.8B valuation, more than $1 billion in annualized bookings, and backing from CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures, Next47 and more. Physical AI is a major technology shift, and Verkada is at the center of it.

You can see our platform’s impact across various communities: a retailer using agentic AI to deter theft, a warehouse with AI-powered alerts for PPE on the floor, and a school receiving real-time threat alerts. Today, more than 2 million Verkada devices are deployed across 170+ countries.

About the Role

Verkada is the leading cloud-managed physical security platform, uniting hardware, software, and AI to deliver enterprise-scale security and insights. At the core of our mission is video—powering real-time monitoring to historical playback for tens of thousands of organizations worldwide.

The Streaming team owns the full-stack infrastructure powering the video experience for over 1.4M Verkada cameras. We tackle complex streaming challenges to deliver live and recorded video with speed, reliability, and security. We ensure that every frame—live or months old—is available instantly, seamlessly, and securely.

As a Backend Engineer (Video Streaming), your work will shape how millions rely on video to stay safe. You’ll design backend systems that scale in usage and cost, while delivering reliability and security. You’ll help make our streaming infrastructure more efficient, interoperable, and future-proof.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve highly scalable, cloud-native services that power video and audio streaming for millions of devices.
• Architect and optimize distributed, real-time data pipelines that connect cameras, the cloud, and end users with low latency and high reliability.
• Build and operate a high-performance video transcoding and multiplexing service that is fault-tolerant, cost-efficient, and scalable to massive workloads.
• Define and refine service-oriented architectures, APIs, and interfaces that enable streaming to scale across our platform.
• Develop clean, reliable, and testable backend code that performs under heavy load and ensures a flawless customer experience.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, hardware, and infrastructure teams to deliver new video capabilities and experiences that raise the bar for the industry.
• Champion engineering excellence by driving performance, reliability, and best practices across the organization.

About You

• 7+ years of backend development experience in Go or Python.
• 7+ years of experience designing and building large-scale, resilient distributed systems using service-oriented or microservice architectures.
• 6+ years of experience with cloud infrastructure, containerization, and deployment automation (AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, or similar).
• 6+ years of experience with databases, queues, blob storage, and distributed systems fundamentals.
• You bring a systems design mindset, able to simplify complex workflows and deliver scalable, efficient solutions.
• You care deeply about performance, reliability, and security, with a track record of building services that excel in all three.
• You thrive in a fast-paced environment, demonstrate creativity and sound judgment, and take ownership of problems end to end.
• Bonus: experience with IoT devices, real-time streaming technologies, or multimedia formats such as H.264/H.265, FFmpeg, or similar pipelines.

Why Join Us

• Build the video streaming backbone of one of the fastest-growing companies in physical security.
• Tackle challenging problems at the intersection of distributed systems, real-time data, and multimedia.
• Collaborate with top-tier engineers and see your work make an immediate impact on products used by thousands of organizations worldwide.
• Join a company with proven product–market fit—startup speed and ownership with the stability of a scaling business.
• Grow a career at a place that values innovation, technical excellence, and end-to-end ownership.
• We support global talent: Verkada sponsors employment visas and can consider existing sponsorships. If you receive an offer, we’ll make reasonable efforts to secure the visa.

Annual Pay Range

$130,000 - $300,000 USD

As an equal opportunity employer, Verkada is committed to providing employment opportunities to all individuals. All applicants will be treated without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

Voluntary Self-Identification for government reporting purposes is requested but voluntary. Completion is confidential and will not affect hiring decisions. If you have a disability, you may request accommodations at any time during the hiring process.

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