Technical Operations Engineer

About the role

The Technical Operations Engineer at the Roku Channel is entrusted with the complete lifecycle of streaming experiences, owning every phase from initial intake through partner integration and directly influencing platform uptime for millions of global viewers. This position demands a meticulous operator who balances the complexities of live feeds, advertising delivery paths, and intricate operational tooling with a consistently calm and precise demeanor under pressure. The role involves standing shoulder-to-shoulder with global teams, embracing around-the-clock on-call duties, and performing reliably within high-stakes, time-sensitive environments. You will function at the critical nexus where engineering, content operations, live operations, and advertising converge. Success in this position requires a proactive stance in not only resolving incidents but also in architecting preventative measures and owning the end-to-end health of the streaming pipeline. The position provides a unique opportunity to shape the viewer experience directly by ensuring content flows seamlessly from source to screen. You will be a key steward of platform stability, responsible for translating complex operational challenges into clear, actionable processes. Ultimately, your work will safeguard the integrity of the Roku Channel, ensuring viewers enjoy uninterrupted, high-quality streaming experiences.

Team focus

The Technical Operations team acts as the platform's primary safeguard, serving as the first line of defense against any disruption that might impact the Roku Channel. It is a globally distributed, around-the-clock organization wholly dedicated to the health, stability, and performance of the Roku Channel and the underlying systems that power it. Engineering resources are strategically positioned across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and India to provide continuous coverage and support. This team maintains vigilant monitoring over advertising delivery mechanisms, CDN infrastructure, live video feeds, and the various content pipelines that feed the service. They operate with a proactive philosophy, triaging issues around the clock to identify and neutralize threats before they escalate to viewer impact. The group functions at the intersection of multiple critical disciplines, collaborating closely with Engineering, Content Operations, Live Operations, and Advertising teams. They are the designated owners of escalation paths, SLA frameworks, and high-visibility launch support for major initiatives. Beyond pure incident response, the team is deeply invested in the development of automation and tooling designed to eliminate manual effort and scale efficiently alongside platform growth. Because the platform operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the team maintains this rigorous operational cadence without pause.

What you'll do

• Stand guard over live feeds and advertising delivery mechanisms, actively tracing anomalies across the entire pipeline to ensure continuity.
• Architect and maintain sophisticated monitoring dashboards and precise alert thresholds designed to surface potential failures proactively, before users are aware of any issue.
• Streamline operational workflows by automating deployment steps and constructing robust recovery playbooks designed to reduce manual toil and human error.
• Act as the central coordinator for launch readiness, working in close partnership with editorial, advertising operations, and engineering stakeholders to ensure seamless execution.
• Perform deep-dive analysis of logs and metrics to methodically clarify the underlying patterns and root causes behind any viewer-impacting errors.
• Liaise directly with high-value sales teams to provide critical operational support during high-stakes events, ensuring service reliability for premium customers.
• Conduct rigorous testing of content ingestion pathways and CDN behavior whenever new channel integrations are introduced or modified.
• Author comprehensive runbooks and maintain current escalation contact lists to enable faster resolution across cross-functional teams.
• Serve as a technical operational partner, translating complex system behaviors into clear status updates and thorough postmortems.
• Continuously evaluate and refine operational processes to improve efficiency, reliability, and the overall resilience of the streaming platform.
• Collaborate with development teams to embed operational best practices directly into the design of new features and services.
• Monitor system performance metrics around the clock, identifying trends and preparing reports for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Participate in architectural reviews to ensure that operational resilience and scalability are considered from the very beginning of project planning.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of internal tools that enhance the productivity and effectiveness of the operations team.

Requirements

• Demonstrate the capability to handle critical incidents affecting The Roku Channel under extremely tight viewer timelines and pressure.
• Bring required, hands-on experience with Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) workflows and the associated technical complexities.
• Navigate Linux environments, Python scripting, and bash scripts with confidence and efficiency in live production contexts.
• Communicate with absolute clarity in written form for status updates, incident reports, and detailed postmortem documentation.
• Exhibit a strong sense of ownership and accountability for operational outcomes and the stability of the viewing experience.
• Show a disciplined approach to troubleshooting, capable of methodically isolating issues to identify root causes quickly.
• Maintain a high level of comfort working with raw data, logs, and technical metrics to inform operational decisions.
• Adhere strictly to established operational procedures and best practices to ensure consistency and reliability.

Nice to have

• Bring prior familiarity with Content Delivery Network configurations and associated monitoring systems to the role.

Practical notes

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Engagement: Full-time.

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Location: Cambridge

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Compensation: $136,800 per year.