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Senior Software Engineer - Audio Algorithms
Netflix
Los Gatos, CA, United States
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In a recent listening test it was observed that the average person could not tell the difference between CD-quality audio and 256Kbps compressed audio from a popular streaming service. If you are one of these average listeners, look away and read no further, because you are definitely not a good fit for this role. If on the other hand, you know what the CALM Act is, and maybe even celebrated its passage, then please keep reading. You don't just laugh at the low quality of machine-generated subtitles, but rather obsess over how to build a better dialog-recognition engine. While watching streaming video, you think to yourself, "if we could improve the audio quality by 10%, we could cut the video bitrate in half and nobody would notice". These are but a few hints that you may be a kindred spirit in the world of audio signal processing, and we most definitely want to talk to you about joining the Encoding Technologies Team as a Senior Software Engineer - Audio Algorithms.
The audio problems we are working on are diverse and exciting. We are simultaneously working to deploy cutting-edge object based audio, and also to deliver high-quality audio at very low bitrates (< 32Kbps) for our customers that live in bandwidth-impaired regions. With a rapidly growing service, we are faced with challenges such as efficiently analyzing, segmenting, and encoding audio assets in a no-touch automated encoding farm, or verifying that subtitles are matched to audio tracks. And as we build the Netflix Studio, we have additional challenges of developing audio algorithms that can be used to automate and optimize the studio production workflow; problems that require a set of robust speech recognition and machine listening tools. These are really big audio problems, and they all need solutions that run at Netflix scale. We are looking for an out-of-the-box thinker, who is also a world-class developer with excellent audio DSP skills. If this sounds like you, then we really need to talk.
As a Senior Software Engineer - Audio Algorithms, you will:
• Develop scalable workflows for emerging audio standards.
• Efficiently analyze, segment, and encode audio assets in an automated encoding farm.
• Create and execute strategies to deliver high-quality audio at low bitrates in bandwidth-impaired regions.
• Develop audio and speech recognition algorithms to automate and optimize the studio production workflow.
About You
• Passionate about all things audio.
• 5+ years experience in audio development, with excellent debugging and problem solving skills.
• BS in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering or equivalent. MS or PhD a plus.
• Expert in C++ programming and OO design. Java a plus.
• Solid understanding of audio compression including codec standards such as 14496-3 or ISO/IEC 23008-3.
• Strong background in audio signal processing, both algorithm design and implementation.
• A problem solver comfortable with loosely defined engineering problems, and maximal freedom to innovate.
Bonus Points
• Expertise in audio segmentation, machine-learning, or speech recognition.
• Experience with distributed cloud-based computing.
• Developer contributions to an open-source multimedia project (ffmpeg, opus, etc.).
• Work with perceptual quality measures for compressed audio (PEAQ, etc.).