Senior Software Engineer, Streaming
Skydio · San Mateo, CA
$200,000–$240,000from the description
Jul 23, 2026
San Mateo, CA
Jul 25, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A backend infrastructure role focused on building and maintaining real-time video streaming and telemetry systems for autonomous drones. The work centers on massively concurrent, low-latency distributed systems handling large-scale data throughput, with responsibilities spanning performance optimization over constrained networks, continuous deployment of stateful services, and evolving internal real-time frameworks. Best suited to engineers with deep distributed systems experience, ideally including messaging platforms and media delivery infrastructure.
Senior level · 5+ years · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 1,350 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 1,000–2,100
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $190,744 (middle half $167,095–$224,501). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (6)
The role sits at the intersection of software development and infrastructure operations — it builds and runs real-time video streaming and telemetry services for distributed drone systems. The primary day-to-day work (designing, building, and optimizing distributed backend services) points to Software Developers (15-1252); 15-1244 is the runner-up given the 'building/running' framing and infrastructure emphasis.
Location is not explicitly stated in the posting. Skydio's headquarters is in San Mateo/Redwood City, CA (San Francisco Bay Area CBSA); the posting references US employment law and E-Verify, confirming a US-based role.
Apache Pulsar is listed as the primary example of a distributed messaging system with Kafka as the named alternative ('like Apache Pulsar or Kafka') — emitted as one skill with Kafka in alternatives.
WebRTC, QUIC, and HLS are listed together as streaming protocol examples under Nice to Have; WebRTC is used as the primary name with QUIC and HLS in alternatives. Similarly, H.264, H.265, and RTP are grouped as low-level video protocol/codec examples — H.264 is primary with H.265 and RTP as alternatives.
FAA Part 107 certification is mentioned as 'strongly encouraged' and 'required for certain positions' — it is not a hard gate for this specific role and is omitted from the skills list.
Equity (stock options) and comprehensive benefits are included in the compensation package alongside the stated $200,000–$240,000 annual base salary range.
Read the full posting
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