Lead Engineer – Real-Time Video Infrastructure

Stream Labs, Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Join Stream Labs, Inc. as a Lead Engineer for our Real-Time Video Infrastructure team, a pivotal role shaping the future of how billions of users experience seamless video communication. Stream is at the forefront of providing essential real-time services, including Chat, Video, Activity Feeds, and AI Moderation, powering leading applications like Strava, Bumble, eBay, and Patreon. Our infrastructure is designed for massive scale, handling millions of concurrent connections daily, and our developer-first SDKs empower teams to integrate sophisticated video calling and livestreaming capabilities in a fraction of the time typically required.
• As a Lead Engineer on the Video team, you will be instrumental in developing and maintaining our cutting-edge real-time video Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU), WebRTC infrastructure, and native SDK ecosystem. This is a deeply technical and impactful leadership position where you will directly contribute to the core technology that defines our product. The role offers a unique blend of hands-on coding and strategic leadership, with approximately 60-70% of your time dedicated to writing and reviewing code, and the remaining 30-40% focused on team management, architectural decisions, and engaging with customers on complex engineering challenges.
• You will begin by leading a small team of 2 engineers, with a clear growth path to managing the entire video team, which will expand to 5-6 talented individuals. Your responsibilities will encompass architecting and evolving our Go/Pion-based SFU, ensuring its robustness and scalability to handle real-time video and audio traffic across a global network. This involves deep dives into media pipeline development, supporting a wide array of protocols and codecs such as WHIP, WHEP, RTMP, SRT, HLS, and Scalable Video Coding (SVC).
• A significant part of your role will involve optimizing performance and efficiency. You will work on critical areas like bandwidth estimation, codec optimization for Opus, VP8/VP9/AV1, and ensuring ultra-low-latency delivery. Furthermore, you'll play a key part in expanding our AI integrations, contributing to real-time audio and video processing capabilities that enhance our product offerings and provide advanced moderation features.
• You will also be responsible for enhancing the stability, performance, and feature set of our globally distributed edge server network. This requires a strong understanding of distributed systems and infrastructure management. Direct collaboration with customers is a core aspect of this role, providing you with invaluable insights into real-world application challenges and enabling you to deliver tailored solutions.
• As a leader, you will be responsible for fostering a high-performing team environment through regular 1:1s, conducting performance reviews, leading code reviews to maintain code quality, and contributing to the technical roadmap. You will leverage core technologies including Go, WebRTC, RTMP, SRT, HLS, Protobuf, SVC codecs, Opus, CockroachDB/Postgres, RocksDB, Raft, and Redis.
• This is an exceptional opportunity to work on challenging, high-scale engineering problems within a fast-growing, well-funded startup. You will be part of a strong engineering culture that values ownership, quality, and continuous learning. The role offers the chance to contribute to open-source projects and work with a diverse, international team in a casual, supportive environment. If you are passionate about real-time video, distributed systems, and leading talented engineers, this role is for you.

🎯 Requirements

• 8+ years of backend engineering experience, with a proven track record of delivering complex, scalable systems.
• 2+ years in an engineering leadership role (e.g., Tech Lead, Team Lead, Engineering Manager), demonstrating the ability to mentor, guide, and grow engineering teams.
• Strong experience in at least two of the following critical areas: Systems-level backend engineering in Go or a similar language (Rust, C++, Java), Scalability fundamentals including distributed systems and database internals, or significant experience with AI adoption and integration.
• Deep understanding of WebRTC protocols, SFU/MCU concepts, RTP/RTCP, and DTLS is a strong plus, enabling you to hit the ground running with our core video technology.

🏖️ Benefits

• Competitive salary range of €100,000 to €160,000 EUR, commensurate with seniority level and location.
• Generous 28 days of paid time off annually, in addition to paid Dutch holidays.
• Meaningful company equity, offering a stake in our success.
• Comprehensive pension scheme to secure your future.
• Dedicated Learning and Development budget to support your professional growth and skill enhancement.

Skills & Technologies

Python

Java

Rust

PostgreSQL

DevOps

Senior

Hybrid

€100k-160k

Ready to Apply?

Apply Externally

You will be redirected to an external site to apply.

Stream Labs, Inc.

Visit Website

About Stream Labs, Inc.

Stream Labs, Inc. offers cloud APIs and SDKs that let developers add scalable activity feeds, chat, video, and audio to web and mobile applications. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, the company serves social networks, marketplaces, collaboration tools, and fintech platforms. Its infrastructure handles billions of updates per month, providing real-time data synchronization, moderation tools, and edge caching designed for high-traffic consumer products.

View Company Profile