About the Role

We are seeking a highly technical, strategic Senior Engineering Manager to lead our Core Content Platform team. In this role, you will define the technical vision and drive the execution of a highly scalable, cloud-agnostic data abstraction layer. You will lead a distributed organization of senior engineers to transition legacy services into a unified, next-generation data platform that natively integrates machine learning and AI capabilities. This is a high-impact leadership position requiring a deep background in distributed systems, real-time data pipelines, and organizational scaling.

For California Only - The estimated annual salary for this position is between $328,500 - $451,600 annually. Compensation packages are based on factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, certifications, and specific geographical location. This role is eligible for health insurance, equity awards, life insurance, disability benefits, parental leave, wellness benefits, and paid time off.

How will I use AI at Roku?

At Roku, we don't just use AI, we work with it. AI agents and smart tools help power drafts, analysis, and repetitive workflows, while our people bring direction, judgment, and accountability. We're looking for curious, adaptable builders who can show how they've used AI or automation to move faster, raise the bar, and scale their impact.

We value your AI skills if you have built fluency across the agentic engineering toolchain - coding harnesses like Claude Code or Cursor, MCP servers, custom skills, or agent frameworks. And you can describe projects where you shipped real work with these tools. You know how to drive an agent, verify its output, and ramp on an unfamiliar codebase with an agent helping you.

What You'll Be Doing

• Technical Vision & Strategy: Drive the architectural roadmap for the platform, ensuring the team builds scalable, highly available, and cloud-agnostic data systems
• Engineering Execution: Oversee the design and deployment of real-time streaming pipelines and distributed data architecture (utilizing tools like Scala 3, Apache Flink, and distributed SQL databases such as CockroachDB)
• Team Leadership: Manage, mentor, and scale a high-performing engineering organization, fostering a culture of technical excellence across US-based and global teams
• Operational Excellence: Own the reliability, performance, and technical debt management of the data platform, ensuring high uptime and seamless delivery to internal and external partners

We're Excited If You Have

• 10+ years of hands-on experience in data engineering, backend architecture, and building highly scalable, distributed data platforms
• 7+ years of direct engineering management experience, with a proven track record of recruiting, leading, and retaining senior-level talent and managing distributed teams
• Deep expertise in building real-time data pipelines and large-scale data infrastructure
• Strong proficiency in modern backend and data engineering languages/frameworks (e.g., Scala, Java, Python) and streaming technologies
• Demonstrated ability to drive large-scale architectural migrations and manage complex technical debt
• Hands-on experience developing or managing GenAI-driven platforms, or natively integrating machine learning pipelines into core data services
• Experience with cloud-agnostic architectures and managing multi-cloud or hybrid deployments
• Domain experience in digital media, content platforms, or large-scale consumer applications.

#LI-SSC

What's Roku's approach to hybrid working?

Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams generally work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are generally flexible for remote work, except for employees whose specific roles or assigned office location require five days' a week attendance.

What are some of the benefits?

Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension). Employees are supported in taking time off, in accordance with local leave policies and other personal needs to support their evolving work and life needs. It's important to note that not every benefit is available in all locations or for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your recruiter.