Senior Software Engineer, Backend IoT & Video Platform

SmartThings • Minneapolis, MN

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer with deep expertise in cloud architectures, real-time media streaming, and distributed systems. In this role, you will lead the design and implementation of cloud services connecting first-party and Matter-enabled cameras to the SmartThings platform. You will architect high-availability services using AWS (EC2, EKS/Kubernetes, Lambda, S3, ElastiCache, DynamoDB, EventBridge) and collaborate closely with firmware, matter, mobile, security and product engineering teams. This role is hybrid, 3 days/week in our Minneapolis Office (on iconic St Anthony Main across from Downtown...with paid attached parking!). The pay range for this role is $117,000 to $158,000, with an annual bonus target of 20%.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related
• 5+ years of production experience in backend software engineering, with demonstrated experience as a Senior technical contributor.
• High proficiency in JVM languages (Kotlin or Scala) as well as Python.
• Strong hands-on experience building distributed systems on AWS (EC2, K8s, Lambda, DynamoDB, ElastiCache).
• Experience with real-time video/audio streaming protocols (WebRTC) or event-driven streaming frameworks (Kafka, Kinesis, EventBridge).
• Proven track record of designing, scaling, and maintaining production REST/gRPC APIs and microservices.
• Strong system design capability, excellent communication skills, and a history of cross-functional technical collaboration.
• A passion for automating everything—from infrastructure (Terraform/CDK) to testing and deployment pipelines.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with IoT protocols (Matter, Thread, MQTT, mTLS/PKI security frameworks).
• Deep experience in observability tools (Datadog, Sumo Logic, OpenTelemetry).
• Experience handling high-concurrency, low-latency media streams at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead the backend design and implementation for Direct-to-Cloud and Edge/Matter camera integration within SmartThings.
• Build high-throughput, low-latency APIs and event-driven microservices to handle live AV streaming, clip recording, and video device management.
• Drive architectural discussions, system design reviews, and establish engineering best practices.
• Mentor other engineers on the team.
• Partner with firmware, mobile, matter, security, and product management teams to deliver seamless end-to-end device onboarding and streaming experiences.
• Participate in system observability setup (tracing, metrics, alerting) and join the team’s on-call rotation to ensure high availability and reliability for consumer-facing production systems.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health
• HSA with employer contribution
• Life & disability insurance
• FSAs for health and dependent care expenses
• Competitive 401k with a 5% employer match
• Unlimited PTO
• 12 paid holidays
• Generous parental leave policy (8 weeks fully paid parental leave and 8 more fully paid weeks for childbirth recovery leave)
• Education reimbursement program
• Access to learning resources through O’Reilly
• Parking stipend
• EV chargers onsite
• In-office catered lunches on Thursdays
• Access to the onsite gym

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior