Staff Rust SDK Engineer

LiveKit is revolutionizing the AI landscape by providing the essential network infrastructure that powers multimodal AI interfaces, enabling seamless audio and visual interactions. Founded in 2021, LiveKit has rapidly grown to support over 3 Billion calls annually, 200,000+ developers globally, and industry giants like OpenAI, Salesforce, Spotify, and Meta.

• obsess with crafting code that is fast, reliable and practical for the problem

• are known as the go-to person for tackling tough technical problems

• work hard and can build and ship fast

• can clearly explain complex technical concepts to others

• are a fast learner, frequently picking up new languages and tools

The best way to impress us is with thoughtful Issues and/or PRs on our Github repos 😊

We’re looking for a passionate Senior / Staff Rust engineer to help build both the LiveKit Rust SDK and the high-performance Rust core modules that power our real-time client SDKs across multiple platforms. You’ll be joining a small, world-class engineering team focused on pushing the boundaries of real-time communication performance, reliability, and developer experience.

In this role, you’ll play a key part in shaping the Rust developer experience for LiveKit, while also building the shared systems that other SDKs (Swift, Kotlin, TypeScript, Unity, Node, Flutter, C/C++ and more) depend on. You’ll have the opportunity to work across deep systems layers and developer-facing abstractions, contributing to open-source software used by teams building real-time apps worldwide.

What makes this role unique is its dual focus: you’ll build a robust, idiomatic Rust SDK while also designing core modules that serve as the performance-critical foundation for LiveKit’s cross-platform ecosystem. Your work will directly influence how developers integrate real-time audio, video, and data streaming into their applications, from embedded systems to large-scale production apps.

1. Design, build, and maintain the LiveKit Rust SDK and the shared Rust core modules that power LiveKit’s multi-platform client ecosystem.

2. Lead by example — guide and mentor engineers with less Rust experience, promote share code, best practices, and foster a culture of high quality, maintainable, and testable Rust code.

3. Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams (client SDKs, agents, cloud teams, PMs) to ensure smooth integration, shared standards, and consistent developer experience.

4. Own the testing, CI/CD, and release processes for Rust projects, ensuring reliability and stability across environments.

5. Profile and optimize performance in real-time, low-latency systems to push the boundaries of what’s possible in LiveKit’s SDKs.

6. Contribute to SDK architecture and design decisions, shaping the long term technical direction for both the Rust SDK and cross-platform SDK interoperability.

• You have strong expertise in Rust and experience delivering production-quality libraries or SDKs.

• You have familiarity with common crates in the Rust ecosystem (e.g., the Tokio async runtime, Criterion for benchmarking, etc).

• You’re collaborative and communicative, comfortable working across multiple teams and platforms.

• You have experience developing SDKs or libraries for multi-platform clients (mobile, web, or embedded).

• You understand testing, CI/CD, and release best practices in modern Rust ecosystems.

• (Bonus) You’ve worked with Livekit techs.

• (Bonus) You have real-time systems, networking, and performance optimization, and may already have experience in WebRTC or related technologies.

• An opportunity to build something truly impactful to the world

• Contribute to open source alongside world-class engineers

• Competitive salary and equity package

• Health, dental, and vision benefits

• Flexible vacation policy