SoundCloud
Backend Engineer - Media Streaming
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Backend Engineer - Media Streaming
Software Engineer – Media Streaming Team
SoundCloud empowers artists, tastemakers, and fans to connect and share through music. Founded in 2007, our creator-first platform helps artists build and grow their careers with advanced tools, services, and resources. With over 4x the music catalog of any major streaming platform, spanning 40+ million artists across 190+ countries, SoundCloud is the place where music culture thrives in real time.
The Role
SoundCloud is seeking a Software Engineer to join our Media Streaming Team, tasked with operating a global-scale media streaming platform—delivering the best audio experience for millions of users, spanning petabytes of data and gigabytes per second of traffic.
You’ll work in a fast-paced, collaborative team, shaping an entertainment ecosystem for creators, listeners, and partners alike.
➡ Read about engineering at SoundCloud
Key Responsibilities
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Backend Development
- Contribute to building, scaling, and maintaining backend APIs and services serving millions of users
- Ensure high performance, scalability, and maintainability of SoundCloud’s core services
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Cross-Team Collaboration
- Work closely with Android, iOS, web, and full-stack engineers to deliver seamless end-to-end media experiences
- Participate in architecture discussions, code reviews, and roadmap planning
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Reliability & Systems Support
- Debug complex systems and user experience (UX) issues, ensuring consistency across global traffic
- Rotate on-call responsibility to safeguard system reliability and user availability
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Requirements
Essential
- 4+ years of experience in backend or distributed systems development at significant scale
- Proficiency in Go
- Hands-on expertise in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform
- Experience with cloud-native environments (AWS, GCP)
- Familiarity with:
- Microservices architecture
- SQL/NoSQL databases
- Container technologies (assumed Docker/Kubernetes experience)
- Commitment to software engineering best practices, including:
- Continuous delivery pipelines
- Defensive programming
- Automated testing
- Clean code principles
- Strong sense of ownership, adaptability in ambiguous or highly dynamic environments
- Collaborative mindset—eagerness to mentor colleagues, advance team goals
Preferred
- Experience designing APIs and backend services consumed by multiple client platforms
- Knowledge of functional programming, particularly Scala
- Background in API communication protocols, including gRPC or GraphQL
- Exposure to media streaming/audio technology, including:
- Audio/video codecs (e.g., AAC, Opus)
- Streaming protocols (HLS, DASH)
- Container formats (e.g., MP3, FLAC, WebM)
- Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and intuition for their applications and limitations
About SoundCloud
Global Reach
- Multinational with offices in:
- United States (New York, Los Angeles)
- Germany (Berlin)
- United Kingdom (London)
Culture & Flexibility
- Hybrid work: In-person collaboration at offices + remote flexibility
- Community-driven: Encourages mentorship, workshops, and skill enrichment
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Inclusion & Belonging
- Dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—active allyship and underrepresented communities empowerment
- Diversity Resource Groups (DRGs): Employees organize groups (e.g., LGBTQ+, disability, minority advancement) and invite allies to join
Why Join SoundCloud?
Benefits
- Creativity & Wellness: Fund participating employees in creative pursuits (e.g., memberships, courses, contribution to Ember—SoundCloud’s diversity grants fund)
- Equity Plan: Employee stock purchase opportunities
- Professional Growth: £3,000/year professional development stipend
- Vacation Policy: Up to 35 days of paid time off (PTO) (including public holidays)
- Office Perks:
- Free gym memberships, eye tests, mental health support
- Weekly fresh lunch subsidies (2 free lunches on-site)
- Snacks, goodies, and refreshments available daily
Truly SoundCloud is for everyone. Our diverse culture reflects our mission: to empower artists, fans, and creators from all walks of life. We uphold principles of inclusivity, ensuring roles accommodate gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, intergenerational variability—and beyond.
grounding in music culture fuels our team’s purpose, innovation, and individual fulfillment. We’d love for you to bring your unique contributions to building the next evolution of music discovery.
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