Senior Software Engineer - TV Playback (C++)
Spotify · London
What this role requires
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Also mentioned, not required: Rust, English (B2). Worth having, but their absence is not what gets a CV filtered out.
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Job description
We design Spotify’s consumer experience—end to end, moment to moment, across every screen, platform, and partner integration. Our mission is to make listening feel effortless, personal, and joyful for billions of users around the world. That means turning complexity into clarity across hundreds of touchpoints—from our mobile and desktop apps to the smart speakers, TVs, cars, and integrations where Spotify shows up every day. If it touches a consumer, we shape it. We bring deep insight into human behavior, design, and technology to craft experiences that feel intuitive, expressive, and unmistakably Spotify.
At Spotify, we’re building the best way to experience audio and video — everywhere, every time. As listening and watching on TV continues to grow, we’re investing deeply in native, video-first playback experiences that are fast, reliable, and feel effortless.
The Native Playback team sits at the heart of Spotify’s TV strategy. We integrate Spotify’s playback experience with the native players and media frameworks available on each platform. Our work happens close to the system — where performance, reliability, and quality truly matter — and directly impacts how millions of people experience Spotify every day.
What You'll Do
Design, build, and evolve the C++ integration layer that powers Spotify’s audio and video playback on TV devices running our new Rust runtime
Integrate Spotify’s playback experience with platform-native media frameworks such as AVPlayer, ExoPlayer, or equivalent TV player stacks
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Own critical playback areas including buffering strategies, playback state handling, A/V synchronization, adaptive bitrate configuration, track selection, and rendering paths
Debug complex performance and reliability issues across multiple layers — from application logic to OS-level frameworks and hardware acceleration
Partner closely with Playback platform teams and device teams to ensure shared APIs and designs translate cleanly into real-world TV implementations
Improve test coverage, tooling, and observability to detect regressions and speed up iteration cycles
Contribute to thoughtful technical design discussions and raise the bar for playback quality through code reviews and knowledge sharing
Who You Are
You have strong of experience building low-level systems in C++, ideally within video, media, or playback domains
You have hands-on experience integrating native playback frameworks such as AVPlayer, ExoPlayer, vendor SDKs, or similar media stacks
You have a deep understanding of video playback fundamentals including codecs, streaming formats, adaptive bitrate (ABR), buffering behavior, and A/V synchronization trade-offs
You are comfortable working close to the OS and media framework layer and diagnosing issues that span multiple system boundaries
You have experience contributing to the design and evolution of scalable technical systems across platforms
You are confident debugging performance and reliability issues using logs, traces, profilers, and system diagnostics tools
You collaborate effectively across teams and communicate technical trade-offs clearly
You care deeply about delivering reliable, high-quality playback experiences for millions of users
Where You'll Be
This role is based in London or Stockholm.
We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best. While some in-person collaboration is expected, you’ll also have the option to work from home.
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