Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
Spotify sits in the mature, consumer-scale end of SaaS, where product delivery depends on dependable client platforms as much as backend services. A senior C++ engineer focused on TV playback is notable because it operates at the boundary between a subscription product and device-level media stacks, an area where many SaaS companies have limited in-house depth. The mention of a new Rust runtime signals ongoing platform evolution rather than pure feature work.
From a SaaS career perspective, this kind of role builds expertise in reliability, observability, and performance under real user load, with clear feedback loops from playback quality to retention and engagement. Working across buffering, ABR, A/V sync, and rendering also develops a systems mindset that transfers to other high-scale client or platform teams, especially where cross-platform consistency and instrumentation matter.
This position tends to suit engineers who prefer debugging across layers, from application logic down to OS frameworks and hardware acceleration. It will appeal to professionals who enjoy partnering with platform and device teams, making trade-offs explicit, and improving test and tooling foundations. It is a strong fit for someone who wants to stay hands-on in deep technical work while influencing quality standards across a widely distributed SaaS product surface.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
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.
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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
- 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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