Principal Software Engineer - Video

San Mateo, CA, United StatesPosted 11 days ago

Role Overview

Roblox is hiring a Principal Software Engineer - Video. This is a full-time role in San Mateo. Part of Roblox's Backend hiring, posted last week. the employer indicates they sponsor work visas. Full responsibilities, required qualifications, and the apply link are listed in the description below.

Salary Context

Salary is not disclosed in this posting. Market median for Principal-level Backend roles is $120k-$275k (based on 11 comparable listings). Many employers share specifics during the interview process or after an initial screen.

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Job description

Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators.

At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device. We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there.

A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone.

As a Principal Software Engineer on the Video team, you'll be responsible for building, operating, and evolving our video transcoding and playback platform and innovate on new uses for video in a 3D world. If you enjoy working with C++ and C# or other backend language while building products for the passionate community of Roblox developers and users, you'll be right at home within our experienced team.

This is a hands-on role developing and operating a complex video processing pipeline with bursty traffic and for someone who takes great pride in being able to sleep in on Saturday mornings.

You Will:

Own our unique challenges of playing video in a 3D world while the video display size and CPU/GPU/RAM/network availability are changing.
Leverage AI coding tools to make yourself even more efficient and productive.
Evolve our video ingest, transcoding, processing, and streaming platform to serve the growing community of creators, working on our backend microservices platform, data pipelines, and the game engine.
Employ best programming practices to write code that is efficient, robust, resilient, understandable, observable, and scalable.
Play a crucial role improving the quality of video encoding and playback on a wide range of devices, from mobile to high-end platforms.
Invent new creative uses for video in a 3D world.
Work with teams all over Roblox, both engineering and non-technical, to bring product visions and proof of concepts to life.
Be responsible for paying close attention to even the smallest details, driving both easy and hard problems to complete conclusions.

You Have:

At least 8+ years of experience developing and deploying video systems
Deep experience with adaptive video playback systems and how to craft an encoding ladder for optimal user experience.
Knowledge of video quality metrics and how to use them to improve video quality in different scenarios.
Successfully deployed a multi-service distributed system at scale with low costs and high availability, and worked with infra and product teams to get the job done.
Familiarity with the challenges of working at scale, especially on constrained platforms like consoles and mobile devices
Experience in performance optimization, creating data pipelines that process millions of records, creating data visualizations, and alerting on critical telemetry.
Proficiency in C++ and C# or another backend language, with an understanding of parallel/concurrent programming concepts.
Knowledge within the video domain and you love to pick up new technologies as the landscape evolves.

For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full-time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits as described on this page.

Annual Salary Range

$293,800—$343,340 USD

Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted).

Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process.

For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.

About Roblox

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I apply for the Principal Software Engineer - Video position at Roblox?

Use the Apply button above to submit your application directly to Roblox. Most applications take less than 5 minutes if your resume and contact details are ready, and you'll be routed to the employer's official application system to finish.

Where is the Principal Software Engineer - Video position at Roblox located?

This position is based in San Mateo. Roblox has not indicated remote or hybrid options for this role, so candidates should plan for on-site work.

What does a Principal Software Engineer - Video at Roblox earn?

Roblox has not disclosed a salary range in this posting. Many employers share specifics later in the interview process; you can also ask during a recruiter screen if compensation transparency is important to you.

When was the Principal Software Engineer - Video role at Roblox posted?

This role was posted on July 12, 2026 (11 days ago). It's still listed as actively hiring; we re-confirm openings against the source system multiple times per day and remove closed roles.

Does Roblox sponsor work visas for this role?

Yes. Roblox has indicated that this position is open to candidates requiring work visa sponsorship. Confirm specifics (H-1B, OPT, country eligibility, etc.) during the recruiter screen.

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