Staff Software Engineer - Multimedia (Video Pipeline)

Role Summary

We are seeking a highly skilled Staff Software Engineer to join our team, focusing exclusively on the architecture and advancement of our in-vehicle video pipeline. You will own the end-to-end path from camera sensors and ISP through capture, encoding, streaming, recording, and display, setting the technical direction for how video is acquired, processed, and delivered across the platform.

The ideal candidate has deep expertise in C++ and a proven track record of designing and optimizing low-latency, high-throughput multimedia systems on embedded heterogeneous hardware. This role primarily focuses on embedded systems development for high-performance applications and carries technical leadership responsibility across multiple teams. This is a hybrid role based out of our Palo, Alto, CA office.

Responsibilities

• Video Pipeline Architecture: Define and own the architecture of the camera-to-display video pipeline, including capture, ISP integration, color conversion, scaling, encoding/decoding, streaming, recording, and rendering, with minimal latency and high power efficiency.
• Codec & Streaming Development: Design, develop, implement and integrate hardware-accelerated video encode/decode (H.264/H.265/AV1) and streaming/recording features (RTSP, RTP, WebRTC, MP4/MKV containers), ensuring robustness and scalability.
• Performance Optimization: Analyze and optimize video pipelines for real-time performance and glass-to-glass latency across CPU, GPU, VPU/hardware codecs, ISP, and DSP, using zero-copy buffer sharing (DMA-BUF, GBM) and efficient memory management.
• Framework & Platform Integration: Build and maintain the multimedia stack on frameworks such as GStreamer, V4L2, libcamera, FFmpeg, and vendor SDKs, and integrate it with the OS, display server, and downstream consumers (CV/AI, HMI, telematics).
• Technical Leadership: Set standards, review designs and code, mentor engineers, and drive cross-team alignment on video interfaces, buffer formats, and quality/latency targets.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with product, hardware, camera/ISP, perception, and platform teams to bring new camera and video features into the final product.
• Quality & Diagnostics: Establish video quality metrics (PSNR/SSIM/VMAF), latency measurement, and telemetry/tracing to detect and resolve frame drops, tearing, A/V sync, and stability issues in production.
• Advanced Prototyping: Rapidly prototype and iterate on new pipeline designs and codec configurations to solve challenging latency, bandwidth, and image-quality problems.

Minimum Qualifications

• Programming Expertise: Expert proficiency in modern C++ (C++17 or later) on Linux/embedded systems; strong multithreading and real-time systems skills.
• Video Pipeline Proficiency: Extensive hands-on experience building production video pipelines, including camera capture (V4L2/libcamera), ISP tuning integration, hardware codecs (H.264/H.265/AV1), and streaming protocols (RTSP/RTP/WebRTC).
• Multimedia Frameworks: Deep experience with GStreamer (including custom plugin/element development) and/or FFmpeg, and with Linux graphics/memory primitives (DMA-BUF, DRM/KMS, Wayland, EGL).
• Hardware Optimization: Demonstrated experience implementing and optimizing media workloads on embedded heterogeneous hardware (CPU, GPU, VPU, ISP, DSP), including zero-copy data paths and power/thermal-aware design.
• Technical Leadership: Experience leading architecture for complex multimedia systems, mentoring engineers, and influencing roadmaps across teams.
• Foundational Knowledge: Strong understanding of algorithms, data structures, software architecture, and video fundamentals (color spaces, chroma subsampling, rate control, GOP structure, timestamps/synchronization).
• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, with 10+ years of relevant experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with automotive camera systems (GMSL/FPD-Link, surround view, digital mirrors, dashcam/sentry recording)
• Functional-safety or security requirements for video
• Computer vision/AI integration (OpenCV, on-device inference)
• Visual computing/parallel programming frameworks (OpenCL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan)

Total Rewards

We build the exceptional - and we believe the people doing that work should be rewarded accordingly. In addition to a competitive base salary, full-time positions may be is eligible to participate in our annual company performance bonus program.

Payments are discretionary and not guaranteed; actual amounts depend on company results and the terms of the plan in effect, and require active employment at the time of payout. This role is also eligible for equity in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), subject to board approval and the terms of our equity incentive plans, including applicable vesting requirements.

In addition to our compensation programs, we invest in our people with a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the health, wellbeing, and financial future for full-time employees - including health coverage, retirement savings, time off, and family planning programs. Offerings vary by country.

External candidates can apply for this role through the Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies careers site.