Do you love to write code?  Are you passionate about software craftsmanship?  Would you like to work on projects with tangible impact?

As a Principal Engineer in the Content Origination Group (COG), you will develop the software that prepares video content for playback to a wide range of IP devices ranging from PCs, iOS, Android, gaming consoles and set-top boxes.  At VIPER COG you will help shape the next generation, cloud-based, video delivery pipeline that provides live streams, full linear lineups, on-demand video and cloud DVR services.

Who does the COG engineer work with?

COG software engineers collaborate with industry experts from many disciplines: software architects, network engineers, big data scientists, player developers, content security specialists, and various streaming video technologists.  A COG engineer also engages with quality assurance engineers, technical operators, and product owners on a daily basis.  We’re a small team, delivering software solutions at the leading edge of streaming video technology. 

What are some interesting problems you’ll be working on?

Comcast manages an enormous library of on-demand videos and vast number national and regional linear channels.  These video assets come in a variety of encoding technologies using different bitrates and different resolutions.  We need to support video playback of all those assets on many different device types, with varying screen sizes, and varying connection qualities.  The COG team provides solutions to manage the combinatorial complexity of matching up the disparate video sources to devices with different capabilities.

One of the solutions this team has already developed is a Just-In-Time-Packager (JITP) called Super8.  Super8 allows us to package video into the formats and bitrates that devices are actually requesting.  Our JITP solution already support various adaptive bitrate formats, including HLS, HDS, and Microsoft Smooth.  You will help add support for whatever new formats the next generation of devices use.

The COG team is also often called on to replace vendor provided solutions that were initially used to bootstrap previous initiatives.  Next up, COG will be redesigning and building the systems responsible for making and managing cloud DVR recordings. You will help scale this system to support real-time recording of 8 terabytes of video per second.

Where can you make an impact?

Your code will process the video content that is distributed to tens of millions of devices, all day, everyday.  The systems you design and build will enable first-to-market product features (for example: cloud DVR).  You can help influence leading edge streaming video technology standards with real world lessons learned by being a first implementer. Replace expensive vendor provided solutions with better, more stable, more scalable, more operable platforms, and see that your individual contributions will have multi-million dollar impacts to the bottom line.

Responsibilities:

·         Design new software applications, support applications under development, and customize existing applications. Develop software update process for existing applications. Assist in the rollout of software releases.

·         Collaborates with project stakeholders to identify product and technical requirements. Conducts analysis to determine integration needs.

•         Diagnose performance issues and propose and implement code improvements

•         Prove scalability with load generating tools

•         Ensure the software architecture is lean and extensible

•         Ensure software modules are reliable for reuse

•         Works with Quality Assurance team to determine if applications fit specification and technical requirements.

•         Be a team resource to help watch for new technologies and methodologies that are relevant to our problem space

•         Define and refine team development processes

Here are some of the specific technologies we use for Content Origination:

·         Go (golang)

·         Python 3

·         C

·         C++

·         Java 8

·         Linux (CentoOS)

·         Git

·         Apache httpd and the Apache Portable Runtime

·         Redis

·         MongoDB

·         OpenStack

Skills & Requirements

·         BS in Computer Science and 11+ years equivalent experience; MS in Computer Science highly preferred

·         Experience in programming languages Java and C/C++. Experience with Go (golang) highly desired

·         Experience developing software on and for multicore Linux machines

·         Intensive knowledge of Object Design, Design patterns, and Algorithms

·         Experience developing software for Networking, Web services, HTTP, and TCP/IP

·         Experience developing multi-threaded and high performance software

·         Experience with FFMPEG, HLS, HDS, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.264 compression a plus

·         Understanding of RESTful design principals

·         Good communicator; able to analyze and clearly articulate complex issues and technologies understandably and engagingly

·         Great design and problem solving skills, with a strong bias for architecting at scale

·         Strong troubleshooting and problem solving skills, adaptable, proactive and willing to take ownership

·         Able to work in a fast-paced environment

About Comcast VIPER (Video IP Engineering & Research)

VIPER (Video IP Engineering & Research), is a startup division within Comcast’s Technology and Product Division and spun out from IP Video and online projects originated within Comcast Interactive Media is based in downtown Denver, CO. We are a cloud-based, IP video infrastructure that’s been built to deliver a broad mix of on-demand video, live TV streams and an assortment of other digital media to an array of connected devices in the home.