Senior Software Engineer - Video Systems

About us

We are building a virtual universe which fundamentally improves how people interact online.

Today, that means a powerful remote-social platform. We already have people working out of our office spaces, attending our virtual conferences, or going to school on our campus spaces. We have folks hosting everything from magic conventions to artist EP launches to thanksgiving dinners, and even a few weddings.

The mission of Gather is to remove physical constraints on peoples' lives, and provide a virtual world which surpasses the real one in interconnectedness, personal touch, and expressiveness.

Role Overview:

As a Senior Software Engineer within the Video team, you would take responsibility (along with a small team) for the design and implementation of this integral part of our product. Video lies at the heart of the Gather experience, providing a low-latency, seamless experience for the spontaneous interactions we're known for. Our video infrastructure handles thousands of concurrent users, spanning all continents of the world.

Unlike traditional room-based video infrastructure, our video infra allows any two users to have a directional audio/video connection — enabling experiences such as podiums, where a speaker can address a large audience while the audience remains quiet to the speaker, yet the audience can still mingle amongst their neighbors, just like in real life. Our video infrastructure spans 5 data centers, ~500 servers, and features an SFU-based design built in-house.

Where you will make an impact:

• Increase the maximum number of simultaneous videos we can reliably display to users beyond our current maximum of 16
• Increase the quality of videos we can reliably display to users
• Increase the maximum size of broadcasts from our current limit of 1-to-200 by forwarding streams between SFUs
• Degrade quality more gracefully for bandwidth or CPU constrained devices, as well as better handling of spurious spikes in latency/congestion
• Make the system better able to recover from various faults and errors
• Set up metrics to get a better handle on what quality of service our users are experiencing, and to inform further improvements
• Build automated tests to ensure the reliability and performance of our video infrastructure as we change it

What you will bring:

• Experience working on a large scale group video calling platform (e.g. Zoom or Google Meet)
• Experience working with WebRTC, either directly or with libraries that use it
• Intrinsic motivation and drive to solve difficult problems without guidance
• A keen intuition for well designed software
• Ability to ruthlessly prioritize in a chaotic and ambiguous environment
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

Benefits

• Work remotely out of a state-of-the-art virtual office!
• Competitive compensation, benefits, and meaningful equity
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their dependents
• 401k and matching program
• Generous PTO policy and mental health days to recharge
• Meal stipend twice a week to keep you nourished
• Remote work, education, and health & wellness stipends
• Support for family planning & gender-affirmation
• The opportunity to join a passionate team in building something that actually makes peoples' lives better, every single day

Gather is committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace for individuals of all backgrounds. We strive to build a workplace where employees feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work, everyday. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Additionally, we're committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please notify the recruiter you are working with. We also ask that all applicants consider answering the voluntary demographic questions on our job application to help us track the inclusivity of our recruiting efforts and programs. Answering these questions is entirely voluntary and your answers will not be shared with the hiring team and will not impact the hiring decision.