Senior Java Engineer

Role Overview

Senior Java Engineer working on the core of Wowza Streaming Engine, a large, performance-critical Java media server that delivers live and on-demand video globally.

The role focuses on Java runtime behavior in real-time workloads (concurrency, latency, correctness) where GC pauses or bottlenecks can directly impact live stream quality.

Responsibilities

• Design and build core engine features for streaming, transcoding, and packaging workflows with strong testability and scalability.
• Own performance: profiling, heap/thread dump analysis, GC behavior, and memory/CPU efficiency.
• Debug hard production issues in multi-threaded, intermittent, only-under-load scenarios.
• Work across the full media pipeline: from ingest protocols through transcoding sessions to packaging and delivery.
• Collaborate across teams from conception through deployment.
• Mentor and enable others through reviews and design discussions; be a streaming subject-matter expert.

Requirements

• 8+ years of hands-on development in Java (or a similar managed, statically typed language such as C#, Kotlin, or Scala) for performance-critical, large-scale systems.
• Strong concurrency/multithreading skills: thread pools, locks, concurrent data structures, and designing thread-safe high-throughput components.
• Deep knowledge of managed runtime performance, including GC (e.g., G1, ZGC, Shenandoah) and heap + off-heap memory management to keep pauses out of latency-sensitive paths.
• Ability to prove where time and memory go using profiling and diagnostic tools.
• 3+ years in transcoding and packaging workflows, including codecs such as H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP9, AV1 and protocols such as RTMP, RTSP, HLS, MPEG-DASH, CMAF, WebRTC.
• Curiosity and strong engineering judgment: learn from evidence, take apart complex systems, and keep improving.
• Fluency with AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Aider) used daily with verification and refined workflows.
• Strong ownership of quality: write tests (unit through performance tests) and help make debugging easier for future engineers.

Nice to Have

• Ability to read and debug C/C++ well enough to follow a native transcoding layer (beneficial, not required).