Lead, Live Video Quality Engineer

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We’ve got the brands, we’ve got the stars, we’ve got the power to achieve our mission to entertain the planet – now all we’re missing is… YOU! Becoming a part of Paramount means joining a team of passionate people who not only recognize the power of content but also enjoy a touch of fun and uniqueness. Together, we co-create moments that matter – both for our audiences and our employees – and aim to leave a positive mark on culture.

Job Posting Title: Lead Live Video Quality Engineer
Department: Video Technology Group
Location: New York (preferred), Los Angeles Or San Francisco

About Us:
Paramount direct-to-consumer is a division of Paramount Skydance Corporation that encompasses both free, paid, and premium streaming services including Paramount+, Pluto TV, CBS Sports Digital and CBS News Digital.

Description: 

Division Overview:
The Video Technology Group delivers industry-leading  streaming solutions, setting company-wide video standards and enabling premium content delivery to millions daily. The team drives innovation in digital video and supports integration of video delivery systems across all Paramount products.

As part of this group, the Live Video Platform team builds and maintains live streaming encoding platforms, manages video processing and publishing workflows, and integrates with CMS and publishing pipelines. This role involves working on high-visibility, mission-critical projects that leverage cutting-edge technologies to deliver exceptional video experiences and maximize user engagement and revenue.

Role Details:
Do you have a passion for live streaming? Are you a builder that enjoys creating innovative solutions? Do you love to solve problems and continually learn?  Do you have a strong background in video streaming and compression?  Does sharing your knowledge and collaborating across multiple teams in a DevOps culture sound exciting to you?  If you answered yes, then we may be looking for you!  

Your Day-to-Day:
●    Lead Quality Assurance workflows across a suite of back-end and front-end frameworks
●    Lead other video QA and software engineers to build, test, and release these video platforms
●    Lead automation testing across the whole end-to-end video lifecycle, including acquisition, processing, delivery and playback. 
●    Lead development and maintenance of internal automated QA systems, ensuring that QA testing is seamlessly integrated with continuous integration and deployment strategies
●    Define and develop useful metrics and alerts for monitoring live streaming events and proactively identify reliability risks.
●    Mentor and guide engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration and technical excellence.
●    Working with internal services to increase automation of the QA workflow.
●    Reviewing test plans with team members to test across different points in the video pipeline.
●    Analyzing test reports, and thoroughly documenting bugs.
●    Create and maintain detailed, comprehensive, and well-structured test plans and test cases.
●    Monitor and track resolution of defects, coordinating with developers in order to prevent, report, and resolve defects
●    Provide QA support both pre and post deployment including occasional evenings and weekends.
●    Investigate and resolve issues in live streaming workflows by collecting relevant logs and metrics, diving into troubleshooting, and suggesting mitigations.
●    Sitting between developers and internal customer teams to ensure platform reliability, scalability & availability.
●    Working with the development team to test new product features and provide feedback into product development for our video streaming platform.
●    Interfacing with other platform teams to build and test video streaming workflows end-to-end.

Key Projects:
●    Aligning test plans to cover Live end-to-end video lifecycle testing.
●    Support Video infrastructure QA and Monitoring for major league launches like UFC, NFL
●    Standardizing regression practices across application platforms and improving automation QA coverage.

Qualifications:
You have -
●    Experience developing pytest automated test framework (or similar) and familiarity with a range of automated test strategies. 
●    Experience working with distributed systems and creating QA strategies to enhance fault-tolerant of such architectures.
●    7+ years of experience with live streaming video or distributed software QA.
●    Strong troubleshooting skills.
●    Drive issues to resolution and provide root cause analysis if needed.
●    Experience with streaming protocols such as HLS, DASH, CMAF, SRT, Zixi, RTP, RTMP.
●    Experience with modern video & audio codecs such as H264, HEVC, VP9, AV1, AAC.
●    Knowledge and understanding of DRM, SCTE-104/35, Closed Captioning, Digital Ad Insertion.
●    Experience with AWS Media Services (MediaLive, MediaConnect, MediaPackage) and / or competing vendors (Zixi, Unified Origin, ATETE, Harmonic, Bitmovin).
●    Experience with REST APIs and data-interchange formats such as JSON and XML.
●    The ability to successfully work with internal business units & teams with varying technical backgrounds.
●    Strong written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills.
●    Tooling & Ecosystem:
○    Experience with Docker and, preferably, Kubernetes.
○    Familiarity with working within cloud providers (AWS, GCP, OCI) and infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.
○    Exposure to building Python REST APIs. We use FastAPI with Celery for distributed task processing.
●    BS degree in Computer Science, similar technical field of study or equivalent practical experience.

You might also have -
●    Familiarity of Rust 
●    Live streaming operations experience.

Paramount+, a direct-to-consumer digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service from Paramount Global, combines live sports, breaking news, and a mountain of entertainment. The premium streaming service features an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel. The service is also the streaming home to unmatched sports programming, including every CBS Sports event, from golf to football to basketball and more, plus exclusive streaming rights for major sports properties, including some of the world’s biggest and most popular soccer leagues. Paramount+ also enables subscribers to stream local CBS stations live across the U.S. in addition to the ability to stream Paramount Streaming’s other live channels: CBSN for 24/7 news, CBS Sports HQ for sports news and analysis, and ET Live for entertainment coverage.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Hiring Salary Range: $124,000.00 - 170,000.00. 

The hiring salary range for this position applies to New York, California, Colorado, Washington state, and most other geographies. Starting pay for the successful applicant depends on a variety of job-related factors, including but not limited to geographic location, market demands, experience, training, and education.  The benefits available for this position include medical, dental, vision, 401(k) plan, life insurance coverage, disability benefits, tuition assistance program and PTO or, if applicable,  as otherwise dictated by the appropriate Collective Bargaining Agreement. This position is bonus eligible.  

• Attractive compensation and comprehensive benefits packages. Check out our full list of benefits here:https://www.paramount.com/careers/benefits
• Generous paid time off.
• An exciting and fulfilling opportunity to be part of one of Paramount’s most dynamic teams.
• Opportunities for both on-site and virtual engagement events.
• Unique opportunities to make meaningful connections and build a vibrant community, both inside and outside the workplace.
• Explore life at Paramount: https://www.paramount.com/careers/life-at-paramount

Paramount is an equal opportunity employer (EOE) including disability/vet.

At Paramount, the spirit of inclusion feeds into everything that we do, on-screen and off. From the programming and movies we create to employee benefits/programs and social impact outreach initiatives, we believe that opportunity, access, resources and rewards should be available to and for the benefit of all. Paramount is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, and Veteran status.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access https://www.paramount.com/careers as a result of your disability. You can request reasonable accommodations by calling 212.846.5500 or by sending an email to paramountaccommodations@paramount.com. Only messages left for this purpose will be returned.