Staff Software Engineer - Multimedia (Video Pipeline)
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies18 hours ago
Base Salary
$186k - $256k/yr
Responsibilities
- Own the architecture of the camera-to-display video pipeline, including capture, ISP integration, color conversion, scaling, encoding/decoding, streaming, recording, and rendering.
- Design and integrate hardware-accelerated H.264, H.265, and AV1 encoding/decoding with RTSP, RTP, WebRTC, MP4, and MKV streaming or recording features.
- Optimize real-time performance, latency, memory use, power, and thermal behavior across CPU, GPU, VPU, ISP, and DSP components using zero-copy data paths.
- Build and maintain multimedia integrations using GStreamer, FFmpeg, V4L2, libcamera, vendor SDKs, Linux graphics primitives, the OS, display server, and downstream CV/AI, HMI, and telematics consumers.
- Set technical standards, review designs and code, mentor engineers, and align multiple teams on video interfaces, buffer formats, and quality or latency targets.
- Collaborate with product, hardware, camera/ISP, perception, and platform teams to deliver camera and video features.
- Establish video quality metrics, latency measurement, telemetry, and tracing to diagnose frame drops, tearing, A/V synchronization, and production stability issues.
- Prototype pipeline designs and codec configurations to solve latency, bandwidth, and image-quality challenges.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- 10+ years of relevant experience.
- Expert proficiency in modern C++ (C++17 or later) on Linux and embedded systems, with strong multithreading and real-time systems skills.
- Extensive hands-on experience building production video pipelines involving camera capture, ISP tuning integration, hardware codecs, and streaming protocols.
- Deep experience with GStreamer, including custom plugin or element development, and/or FFmpeg, plus Linux graphics and memory primitives.
- Experience optimizing media workloads on embedded heterogeneous hardware with zero-copy data paths and power- or thermal-aware design.
- Experience leading architecture for complex multimedia systems, mentoring engineers, and influencing roadmaps across teams.
- Strong knowledge of algorithms, data structures, software architecture, and video fundamentals such as color spaces, chroma subsampling, rate control, GOP structure, timestamps, and synchronization.
- Preferred experience with automotive camera systems such as GMSL/FPD-Link, surround view, digital mirrors, and dashcam or sentry recording.
- Preferred experience with functional-safety or security requirements for video, computer vision or AI integration, OpenCV, on-device inference, OpenCL, OpenGL ES, and Vulkan.
Benefits
- Competitive base salary, annual company performance bonus eligibility, and equity in the form of RSUs, subject to applicable plan terms.
- Comprehensive benefits for full-time employees, including health coverage, retirement savings, time off, and family planning programs.
- Hybrid work arrangement based out of the Palo Alto, California office.
About Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is a 2024 joint venture building software and electrical architectures for software-defined electric vehicles. It develops in-vehicle operating systems, zonal controllers, connectivity, and cloud solutions used by Rivian and Volkswagen Group brands. The privately held company is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, and focuses on creating a shared platform that can be integrated and licensed across multiple vehicle programs.