Sr. Software Engineer, Android - Fandango

Job description

Company Description VERSANT is a leading force in news, sports and entertainment - home to iconic and trusted brands that inspire, inform, and delight audiences. Our unique combination of content, technology and services enriches the cultural fabric, igniting passions, sparking conversations, and connecting people to what they love most. As an independent, publicly traded company, VERSANT brings together powerhouse cable networks - including USA Network, CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Golf Channel - with dynamic digital and direct-to-consumer brands such as Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine. Together, these businesses reflect our commitment to delivering exceptional experiences across every screen and service. VERSANT is an industry-changing media company fueled by innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. With a strong foundation and a forward-looking vision, VERSANT empowers creativity, embraces change, and drives connection in an ever-evolving world. Job Description The Opportunity Fandango is seeking a Senior Android Software Engineer to join the Video Player team. In this role, you will help design, build, and maintain Android video playback technologies, including ownership of the Video Player SDK. Why This Role Matters: Your work will directly support reliable, high-quality streaming experiences for millions of users. You will collaborate with engineers across platforms to strengthen video playback performance, scalability, and long-term maintainability across Fandango’s digital products. This is a fully remote role, with opportunities for in-person collaboration approximately 10% of the time based on business needs. What You’ll Do Design, develop, and maintain an Android Video Player SDK using Kotlin, Java, and Android media frameworks. Lead and contribute to scalable architecture for cross-platform video playback solutions. Implement and optimize streaming, buffering, DRM, offline playback, and performance-related video features. Partner with engineering, QA, and operations teams to reproduce, diagnose, and resolve playback issues across the video pipeline. Write clean, performant, maintainable code and contribute to strong engineering practices through code reviews and documentation. Provide technical guidance and mentorship while staying current with Android and streaming media best practices. Qualifications What You Bring 3+ years of professional Android development experience, with strong proficiency in Kotlin and/or Java. Experience with Media3 and/or ExoPlayer, including DASH and/or HLS streaming and Widevine DRM. Strong understanding of video playback concepts, streaming protocols, buffering, bitrate adaptation, device-specific behavior, and performance optimization. Experience building reliable, reusable platform components or SDKs. Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative engineering environment. Trust: You write reliable, maintainable code and follow through on technical commitments. Teamwork: You collaborate across engineering, QA, operations, and platform teams to solve complex playback challenges. Transparency: You communicate technical tradeoffs, document decisions, and share knowledge clearly. Agility: You adapt to evolving product needs, platform changes, and emerging streaming technologies. Entrepreneurial Spirit: You take ownership of complex technical problems and look for scalable, forward-thinking solutions. Bonus points for experience with analytics, QoE metrics, video instrumentation, web, Roku, iOS, other streaming platforms, video ad integrations such as IMA SDK, VAST, or VMAP, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing for media applications. Why You’ll Love It Here At VERSANT, you’ll help shape technology that powers trusted entertainment experiences across screens and services. You’ll join a collaborative, product-focused engineering environment where your work has meaningful impact, your technical perspective is valued, and you have room to grow. This role is remote, with periodic in-person collaboration opportunities to support team connection, planning, and business priorities. Additional Information As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law. For LA County and City Residents Only: VERSANT Media will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to candidateaccessibility@versantmedia.com . VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc. VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.