Staff Software Engineer - Android

Company Description

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, built to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Our products help people make powerful connections, discover exciting opportunities, build necessary skills, and gain valuable insights every day. We’re also committed to providing transformational opportunities for our own employees by investing in their growth. We aspire to create a culture that’s built on trust, care, inclusion, and fun – where everyone can succeed.  Join us to transform the way the world works.

At LinkedIn, our approach to flexible work is centered on trust and optimized for culture, connection, clarity, and the evolving needs of our business. The work location of this role is hybrid, meaning it will be performed both from home and from a LinkedIn office on select days, as determined by the business needs of the team. 

Job Description

Team Description
You would join the Media Infra org as a Staff Software Engineer on the Media SDK team. Media Infra owns the platform that powers all media uploads and playback at LinkedIn. The Media SDK team builds the client-side SDKs and libraries that enable video, image, document, Live, and VC experiences across iOS, Android, and Web. Sitting at the intersection of infrastructure and product, the team’s work directly shapes member-facing experiences at scale.

Responsibilities
In this role, you’ll provide technical leadership for the Media SDK, shaping how media playback and rendering work across the app. You’ll own and evolve core media infrastructure—player architecture, performance, reliability, and scalability—while driving design decisions that span iOS, Android, and Web. You’ll partner closely with product, Media Infra, and client teams to unblock complex initiatives, set technical direction, and raise the bar for media quality and developer velocity. This role offers deep ownership, broad impact, and the opportunity to influence media architecture end to end at LinkedIn scale.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications
• BA/BS Degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline, or related practical experience.
• 4+ years of industry experience in software design, development, and algorithm related solutions.
• 4+ years programming experience in programming languages such as Java, Kotlin, C/C++, JavaScript, Python, etc.

Preferred Qualifications
• BS and 8+ years of relevant work experience, MS and 7+ years of relevant work experience, or PhD and 4+ years of relevant work experience

Suggested Skills

• Deep Android platform expertise (lifecycle, threading, memory) with strong Kotlin/Java skills.
• Hands-on experience with ExoPlayer / Media3 for high-quality video and audio playback.
• Strong understanding of HLS/DASH streaming, buffering, ABR, and latency tradeoffs.
• Proven ability to design scalable media player architectures (lifecycle, pooling, background handling).
• Track record of improving media performance and reliability at scale (startup, rebuffering, stability).
• Experience building reusable Android SDKs or shared libraries used by multiple teams.
• Strong debugging and performance analysis skills using Android tooling and production metrics.
• Staff-level technical leadership: driving design, influencing teams, and mentoring engineers.

You will Benefit from our Culture

We strongly believe in the well-being of our employees and their families. That is why we offer generous health and wellness programs and time away for employees of all levels.

LinkedIn is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range for this role is $152,000 - $248,000. Actual compensation packages are based on a wide array of factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, years & depth of experience, certifications and specific office location. This may differ in other locations due to cost of labor considerations.

The total compensation package for this position may also include annual performance bonus, stock, benefits and/or other applicable incentive compensation plans. For additional information, visit: https://careers.linkedin.com/benefits. 

Additional Information

Equal Opportunity Statement 

We seek candidates with a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. LinkedIn considers qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.

LinkedIn is committed to offering an inclusive and accessible experience for all job seekers, including individuals with disabilities