Senior Software Engineer, Search Infrastructure

Teamwork makes the stream work.

Roku is changing how the world watches TV

Roku is the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and we've set our sights on powering every television in the world. Roku pioneered streaming to the TV. Our mission is to be the TV streaming platform that connects the entire TV ecosystem. We connect consumers to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers unique capabilities to engage consumers.

From your first day at Roku, you'll make a valuable - and valued - contribution. We're a fast-growing public company where no one is a bystander. We offer you the opportunity to delight millions of TV streamers around the world while gaining meaningful experience across a variety of disciplines.

 

About the Team 

 

Roku’s Search & Recommendations (S&R) Platform Engineering team is central to our mission of delivering outstanding streaming experiences to millions of people around the world. We develop and maintain the core platform that powers search, personalisation, and content discovery at scale across every Roku device and service. 

We are a technically diverse and collaborative team that values ownership, transparency, and a culture of continuous improvement. We work closely with colleagues across platforms and infrastructure teams to deliver high-performance distributed systems and observability capabilities that enable real-time search, ranking, and recommendations. 

Our work includes designing and optimising online inference infrastructure, feature stores, and data pipelines — all seamlessly integrated with the broader platform ecosystem (Kubernetes, Istio, Envoy). We’re passionate about solving complex technical challenges that have a direct impact on how users experience Roku. 

 

About the Role 

 

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer with experience in building scalable, reliable systems to help evolve and extend the infrastructure behind our Search and Recommendations platform. In this role, you’ll be part of a cross-functional, globally distributed team dedicated to creating fast, cost-efficient solutions that deliver relevant and seamless user experiences. 

You’ll contribute to the design, development, and operation of critical systems that power real-time search and personalised recommendations for millions of users. You’ll help shape the roadmap for our next-generation architecture, drive standardisation and tooling efforts, and champion best practices in observability and resilience. 

We are a fast-moving team with a strong engineering culture built on clear communication, thoughtful decision-making, and a shared commitment to delivering impactful solutions. Collaboration is fundamental to how we work — we invest as much in supporting our growth as we do in building exceptional systems. 

 

What You’ll Be Doing 

 

• Design, build, and operate platform infrastructure powering real-time search and personalised recommendations 

• Work closely with machine learning engineers, data scientists, and infrastructure teams to scale our Machine Learning Platform 

• Shape the roadmap for our next-generation architecture, including improvements in cost efficiency, observability, and resilience 

• Drive tooling and standardisation, working with the broader platform teams to identify and align on shared approaches 

• Design and implement multi-tenant systems and APIs that accelerate development, reduce coupling, and serve multiple teams across Roku 

• Take ownership of quality and system performance from design through deployment and operation in production 

 

We’re Excited If You Have 

 

• 6+ years of professional experience building large-scale distributed systems 

• Proficiency in modern backend languages (Java, Python, Go) and scalable cloud-native architectures (AWS, Kubernetes, service meshes, etc.) 

• Deep knowledge of DevOps practices, SRE principles, infrastructure-as-code, and real-time data processing 

• Experience collaborating with engineers and product stakeholders to shape features and systems 

• A platform mindset: you design with reuse, observability, and scale in mind, supporting not only your team but the broader engineering organisation 

• A track record of improving performance, cost efficiency, and maintainability in complex environments 

• Expertise in deploying and operating observability and tracing tools such as OpenTelemetry, Grafana Tempo, Thanos, Loki, and Prometheus at scale 
• Education: Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience 

#LI-PA1

Benefits

Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension). Our employees can take time off work for vacation and other personal reasons to balance their evolving work and life needs. It's important to note that not every benefit is available in all locations or for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your recruiter.

 

The Roku Culture

Roku is a great place for people who want to work in a fast-paced environment where everyone is focused on the company's success rather than their own. We try to surround ourselves with people who are great at their jobs, who are easy to work with, and who keep their egos in check. We appreciate a sense of humor. We believe a fewer number of very talented folks can do more for less cost than a larger number of less talented teams. We're independent thinkers with big ideas who act boldly, move fast and accomplish extraordinary things through collaboration and trust. In short, at Roku you'll be part of a company that's changing how the world watches TV. 

We have a unique culture that we are proud of. We think of ourselves primarily as problem-solvers, which itself is a two-part idea. We come up with the solution, but the solution isn't real until it is built and delivered to the customer. That penchant for action gives us a pragmatic approach to innovation, one that has served us well since 2002. 

To learn more about Roku, our global footprint, and how we've grown, visit https://www.weareroku.com/factsheet.

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