Sr. Software Engineer

Company Description

VERSANT is a leading force in news, sports and entertainment - home to iconic and trusted brands that inspire, inform, and delight audiences. Our unique combination of content, technology and services enriches the cultural fabric, igniting passions, sparking conversations, and connecting people to what they love most.

As an independent, publicly traded company, VERSANT brings together powerhouse cable networks - including USA Network, CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Golf Channel - with dynamic digital and direct-to-consumer brands such as Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine. Together, these businesses reflect our commitment to delivering exceptional experiences across every screen and service.

VERSANT is an industry-changing media company fueled by innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. With a strong foundation and a forward-looking vision, VERSANT empowers creativity, embraces change, and drives connection in an ever-evolving world.

Job Description

We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join the Video Encoding and Delivery team, where you will contribute to the systems that ingest, encode, package, and deliver premium video content for millions of users across VOD, AVOD, and Live workflows. Your focus will be on developing and optimizing our video ingestion, encoding, packaging, and validation services, ensuring efficient, secure, and reliable video delivery across a wide range of devices and platforms.

You will work closely with the team’s Principal Engineer and collaborate across engineering, infrastructure, and quality domains to evolve our cloud-based media pipeline. This is a hands-on role ideal for an experienced backend or media systems engineer who takes pride in clean, maintainable code and thrives in high-performance, distributed environments.

What Role Will You Play?

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will:

• Build and enhance our video ingestion, encoding, packaging, and validation systems to support scalable, secure, and standards-compliant video delivery (e.g., DASH, HLS, CMAF).
• Own features and services that manage the content lifecycle—from ingestion through final packaging and readiness for playback.
• Integrate seamlessly with ad-related workflows, ensuring proper signaling and playback behavior.
• Collaborate with other engineering teams to optimize compatibility and performance across diverse platforms.
• Partner with quality and test engineers to automate validation and ensure accurate, efficient content delivery.
• Contribute to platform reliability by building systems that are observable, maintainable, and scalable in modern cloud environments.
• Support future efforts to build internal tools and services that evaluate and improve encoding quality.

Your Daily Tasks

• Develop and maintain distributed microservices for video ingestion, encoding, packaging, validation, and lifecycle management.
• Debug and resolve issues related to playback performance, packaging compliance, and system reliability.
• Build automation to test, validate, and monitor content readiness across platforms and regions.
• Participate in design reviews and collaborate with the Principal Engineer on key system improvements.
• Work within an Agile team, contributing to regular stand-ups, planning sessions, and retrospectives.

Why This Role?

You’ll be a key part of a mission-critical team that ensures Fandango at Home delivers high-quality, reliable video to millions of users. You won’t just write code—you’ll build the infrastructure that powers content readiness, streaming performance, and end-user satisfaction. And you’ll do it as part of a collaborative, deeply technical team with strong leadership and high-impact goals.

Qualifications

What Skills Do You Need to Play This Role Well?

Technical Skills

• 3+ years of experience in software development, with strong expertise in Python and other languages.
• Practical experience with video delivery technologies, including ingestion pipelines, encoding, packaging, validation, DRM, and encryption.
• Familiarity with streaming protocols and manifest formats such as DASH, CMAF, and HLS.
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS) and containerization technologies (Kubernetes, Docker).
• Exposure to CI/CD pipelines, Git workflows, and automated testing strategies.
• Bonus: Proficiency in terraform.

Collaboration & Soft Skills

• Strong communicator who can work effectively across technical and operational domains.
• A proactive problem-solver with a keen eye for diagnosing and resolving issues utilizing split half and other techniques.
• Passion for learning and staying current with evolving video standards, cloud practices, libraries, and secure delivery models.
• Experience working in a distributed team across time zones and disciplines.

Fully Remote: This position has been designated as fully remote, meaning that the position is expected to contribute from a non-Versant worksite, most commonly an employee’s residence.

This position may require up to 10% travel for onsite collaboration and meetings at a Versant office location, based on the needs of the business. The final round of the interview process will be conducted in person. #LI-remote

Additional Information

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

For LA County and City Residents Only: VERSANT Media will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to candidateaccessibility@versantmedia.com.

VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.

VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.