JavaScript Job: Dir Software Engineering

Company Overview

Every great story has a new beginning. We're excited to announce that Discovery and WarnerMedia have combined to become Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD is a premier global media and entertainment company offering audiences the world’s most differentiated and complete portfolio of content, brands and franchises across television, film, sports, news, streaming and gaming. We’re home to the world’s best storytellers, creating world-class products for consumers. From brilliant creatives to technology trailblazers and beyond, join us as we step into the next chapter.

Come join our team!

The CNN Digital team is hiring a Director of Software Engineer specializing in consumer video and audio product experiences. This is a great opportunity for an individual that is passionate about video and audio technology and prefers to remain close to code and architecture. This role will be critical to the development of a new digital video and audio products organization with ambitious goals of transforming the way consumers engage with CNN’s digital content, increase viewership, and revenue.

As the Director of Video and Audio Experiences, you will lead a team of technology managers, architects, and engineers, and work cross-functionally with product, design, editorial, content creators, and program managers to deliver and support CNN’s core digital video & audio products and capabilities, including:

• Web TV Everywhere (TVE). CNN is enhancing our MVPD (Multi-channel Video Programming Distributor) product offering, formally known as CNNGo, that integrates with cable service providers to deliver live streaming news broadcasts and AVOD content for CNN, CNN International, and HLN.
• Audio Hub. CNN Audio delivers exclusive live streaming audio content and podcasts for CNN Worldwide, through our own and operated digital channels (web and mobile) as well as distribution partners and smart speaker devices (such as Siri and Alexa)
• Unified Player Platform. We understand that consumer preferences and behaviors vary. As such, CNN aims to provide a consistent and premium experience across all our owned and operated digital channels (web, mobile, as well as connected TVs) that allows our audience to flexibly and seamlessly switch the way they want to consume content throughout the day without missing a beat.
• Contextual Advertising. Video and audio content are CNN’s core differentiators, making them fundamental revenue drivers for the business. Leveraging our content platforms and data sources, we help brands identify and connect with micro-communities globally in a contextual, seamless manner, so they may engage with our content and advertising partners in a meaningful way.

Skills Required:

• 12+ years of professional experience in software development, of which 5+ years involves direct management of a team of 15 or more full time employees.
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, or equivalent.
• Professional experience operating in a continuous delivery organization that leverages Agile principles, methods (ceremonies), and tools (Jira). Comfortable working on early iterations of solutions without clearly defined parameters, and the ability to lead a team which has autonomy in their day-to-day decisions.

• Experience developing fully responsive consumer-facing web applications, working together with end-user testers, UX designers, and product managers. Extensive knowledge of CSS, HTML, NodeJS, TypeScript/JavaScript/React, and web frameworks is preferred.

• General understand of the challenges and architecture of video technology solutions, from front-end client player integration to full delivery cycle of video content: encoding, packaging, and distribution. Demonstrated hands-on experience in the development or integration of web video player libraries is preferred.

• Experience working with video and/or audio content in mobile or OTT apps is ideal, but not required.
• Experience integrating services and SDKs (third-party or otherwise) for ads, analytics, audience engagement, and media asset management.
• Experience building comprehensive and robust APIs, configurations, and components to support video playback, user interfaces, video metadata, and third-party integrations.
• Working knowledge of media streaming, client-side and server-side ad insertion, video player events, and captions.

• Working knowledge of digital rights management (DRM), analytics technologies, and adaptive bitrate algorithms. Understanding of how video playback works in modern web browsers and any associated limitations, media source extensions, encrypted media extensions, and auto play.

• Ability to translate business requirements to technical architectures and designs
• Comfortable communicating with stakeholders from internal technical and nontechnical members, product managers, C-level management.
• Demonstrated expert knowledge of software development methodologies, practice, and architecture, specifically experience architecting performant, scalable, secure, and cost optimized cloud solutions on AWS.
• A general understanding of DevOps CI/CD tools (Jenkins, Maven/Gradle, and Terraform) as well as implementation best practices.
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, application design, solution development, human factors/usability design, and implementation of projects for major business units or the enterprise.

Location: New York City or Atlanta, preferred. Other locations

• Education / Certification: Computer Science or similar fields. Advance degree preferred. AWS Professional Certification preferred, but not required.

Nice to haves:

• REST API usage and development.
• A|B testing and consumer testing platforms.
• Experience with AWS services (such as Lambda, API Gateway, SNS, Elasticache, S3, and CloudFront)
• Unit testing with frameworks such as Jasmine, Mocha, or Jest.
• Swift, Java or BrightScript
• Experience building solutions for high traffic websites.
• Basic understanding of streaming media in a multi-CDN environment.
• Understanding of engineering best practices for performance and accessibility

As a member of the team you will:

• Be responsible for owning, implementing, developing and maintaining complete high-priority features with thorough testing.
• Communicate effectively with engineering and product to ensure engineering requirements and expectations are met.
• Collaborate with team members in the planning and execution of new features and products.
• Thoroughly document your own contributions and, where necessary, the contributions of others.
• Be highly independent and autonomous in contributions to the code-base - checking in where necessary to ensure technical alignment.
• Day to day could involve planning and preparation for a new feature, followed by careful implementation of said feature with associated testing.
• Collaborate with video streaming and encoding teams to improve video delivery and playback.

About you:

• You are excited to learn and ready to take on new challenges.
• You are an excellent communicator capable of assessing a technical task and breaking it into smaller tasks in partnership with other engineers and/or product
• You are comfortable giving demos of your work and explaining technical details and requirements across teams
• You are excited and eager to take on mentoring of more junior engineers, and you ideally have experience doing so in the past
• You are excited to add positively to the culture of CNN, both from an interpersonal level and from a code improvement standpoint
• You are passionate about improving the code you touch and interact with

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles that will be performed in New York City. Actual salaries will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. The range listed is just one component of Warner Bros. Discovery’s total compensation package for employees. Pay Range: $220,500.00 - $409,500.00 salary per year. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO).

Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of our society and the world around us. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.

If you’re a qualified candidate with a disability and you need a reasonable accommodation in order to apply for this position, please contact us at [email protected].