Distributed Systems Engineer, Netflix
$100-720k
Our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options
Office located in Los Gatos, CA
Streaming service
Job no longer available
Streaming service
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$100-720k
Our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options
Office located in Los Gatos, CA
1001+ employees
Company mission
Entertainment, like friendship, is a fundamental human need; it changes how we feel and gives us common ground. Netflix is better entertainment at lower cost and greater scale than the world has ever seen. They want to entertain everyone, and make the world smile.
Role
Who you are
- We are seeking a backend, distributed systems focused engineer who is comfortable writing, improving, maintaining, and sunsetting critical services at tremendous scale
- Cross-Functional – You enjoy collaborating with multiple teams on creating solutions and supporting solutions with a myriad of sometimes conflicting requirements
- Seeking Excellence – You enjoy the pursuit of engineering excellence by evangelizing, establishing and iterating on best practices
- Curiosity – You are curious and enjoy working on ambiguous problems where the solutions are not (yet) well defined
- Communication – You are proficient in verbal and written mediums at explaining topics that the audience was not familiar with previously
- You possess strong software skills in Java or other JVM languages
- You are experienced with operating complex distributed systems components (like databases, APIs (REST, gRPC, GraphQL), and controllers). You know how to debug them and how they can fail
- You are proficient in backend services and integration layers
- You are able to break down complexity, iterate, and communicate progress to a wide variety of partners and stakeholders
- You possess strong software skills in Java or Kotlin
- You have worked on a developer platform team where other engineers were your customers
- You have worked on schema changes in a federated GraphQL gateway
- You are familiar with the Spring Boot framework
- You are proficient with high volume data stores
What the job involves
- High Impact - your work will touch every engineer at the company and be crucial for the ongoing success of Netflix
- Stunning Colleagues - you will be working with other excellent people with diverse perspectives, who value collaboration, working to excel as the “dream team”
- Energizing Challenges - there is a wealth of opportunity when working on complex technical projects and our culture both enables and encourages you to rise to the challenges
- Feedback – you will constantly have opportunities for growth because meaningful positive and constructive feedback is part of everyday life at Netflix
Otta's take
Xav Kearney
CTO of Otta
Netflix was started when one of the co-founders had received a $40 late fee after failing to return a film on time. Now, Netflix is one of the fastest growing technology companies, reinventing the entertainment space by providing high quality content for low fees.
This is becoming an increasingly competitive space, with deep-pocketed rivals including Amazon, Disney, Apple and AT&T. They are all spending big on content and pricing cheaply in a battle to win subscribers.
After a dwindling number of subscribers due to tough competition in 2022, Netflix is focused and committed to improving its core service which is its TV, movies and now games going forward. Post-IPO funding of $183 million from Winslow Capital at the end of 2023 followed the previous year's dumping of shares by the same company after Netflix's first loss of subscribers. This capital indicates a shifting perspective on Netflix's outlook, which saw a year-end subscriber boost.
Insights
Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
-8% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Apr 2000
$50m
SERIES E
Jul 1999
$30m
SERIES D
Total funding: $103.5m
Company benefits
- Work from home opportunities
Company values
- Inclusion
- You work well with people of different backgrounds, identities, values and cultures
- You are excited to help build diverse teams where everyone feels welcomed and respected
- You recognize we all have biases and work to counteract them
- You take action if someone is marginalizing a colleague
- You treat everyone with respect regardless of their position at Netflix
- Integrity
- You exhibit and are known for candor and transparency
- You only say things about colleagues that you are willing to share with them
- You admit mistakes openly and share learnings widely
- You always share relevant information internally, even when uncomfortable
- You act with good intent and trust your colleagues to do the same
- Passion
- You care deeply about Netflix‘s success
- You inspire others with your drive for excellence
- You are excited about your work
- You are proud to entertain the world
- You are tenacious and optimistic
- Innovation
- You develop new ideas that prove impactful
- You look for every opportunity to reduce complexity and keep things simple
- You challenge prevailing assumptions, and suggest better approaches
- You are flexible and thrive in a constantly evolving organization
- Curiosity
- You learn rapidly and eagerly
- You seek alternate perspectives to improve your ideas
- You see patterns and connections that other people miss
- You seek to understand members’ changing tastes and desires
Company HQ
Los Gatos, CA
Founders
Reed Hastings
(Chairman)Served two years with the Peace Corps in Switzerland. Studied Computer Science at Stanford, and founded Pure Software (which sold for a substantial profit before Netflix). Previously a Board Member at Microsoft and Facebook.
Greg Peters
(Co-CEO)Previously Netflix COO and CPO, SVP and CE of Product Development at Macrovision, VP of Engineering at Mediabolic, Director at Redhat inc, VP Engineering at NOCpulse.
People progressing
Joined as a Content Strategy Associate in LA. Moved to London after 6 months. They have been promoted to Head of Content Strategy & Analysis UK.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job