Member of Technical Staff - Media
xAI is seeking a Member of Technical Staff specializing in media to join our team in Palo Alto, CA, or Seattle, WA. As a media engineer at xAI, you will play a pivotal role in integrating our advanced AI infrastructure into a platform that serves approximately 600 million users monthly. This initiative aims to revolutionize the video product experience, encompassing video playback, live streaming, Spaces, audio/video calls, and more. Our team is small, highly motivated, and committed to engineering excellence, operating within a flat organizational structure that values hands-on contributions and initiative.
In this role, you will be responsible for building the next generation of large-scale video services. Your tasks will include contributing to and rebuilding core media processing and distribution pipelines using high-performance languages such as Rust, C++, or Go. A critical aspect of your work will be to ensure end-to-end media quality and performance at scale, obsessing over every millisecond and pixel across a diverse suite of products and user platforms.
The ideal candidate will have at least 5 years of experience and a strong passion for media quality, performance, and product experience. Proficiency in high-performance C++ or Go is essential, along with in-depth knowledge of WebRTC, LL-HLS, or video transcoding pipelines. Familiarity with building and running scalable and resilient distributed systems is also required.
Preferred qualifications include experience with Go, C++, Rust, Java, or Scala, as well as familiarity with technologies such as Kubernetes, FoundationDB, ValKey, Envoy, and S3. Knowledge of media formats and protocols like H.264, H.265, AV1, MP4, CMAF, VMAF, RTP, RTMP, LL-HLS, HDR, and DRM is advantageous.
The compensation for this position ranges from $180,000 to $440,000 USD annually. In addition to the base salary, xAI offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes equity, medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.