Lead Software Engineer

Storytelling is, and will always be, the heart of what we do at Skydance.
Our vision is to build a thriving entertainment ecosystem where stories and worlds are imagined, brought to life and experienced. We create for every age and audience, anchored by the strength of our content and experiences and the depth of our connection with fans. We are creator-first, audience-focused, tech-forward, globally scaled.

Here, you’ll work with talented teams that move fast, think boldly and collaborate with purpose to deliver results. We aim high, champion the best ideas and win together, earning the trust of our employees, creators, partners and audiences every day.

If you’re energized by the opportunity to help build the next-generation global media and entertainment company powered by creativity and technology, we’d be thrilled to welcome you aboard. LET’S GO!

Location: US - In Office (LA, NY, SF)

About This Role

Paramount is looking for a hardworking Lead Software Engineer - Android to develop cohesive solutions to content based technical obstacles. The role will be end-to-end from understanding the goals and roadmaps of the product and engineering teams, through design and architecture of any solution and the delivery and maintenance of those platforms once in place.

This role sits at the intersection of deep Android platform engineering and AI-native development: daily use of AI agents and coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot) and hands-on collaboration with ML and data science teams on client-facing features.

We are seeking someone who will participate in the definition of product requirements, being able to articulate how the engineering effort will align to those requirements and provide accurate estimates of the effort. You will also be involved in platform architectural discussions and initiatives paving the way for optimizations and performance alongside. You will also be working with a team of engineers through the development process, including implementing standards around code, tooling, metrics, progress reporting and interactions with the QE team to ensure a quality first approach to any work.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Drive the architectural direction and design of Android applications
• Establish best practices for coding, testing, and deployment
• Evangelize new tools, frameworks, and processes for continued innovation and development efficiency
• Prepare architectural diagrams and technical specifications for the engineering team to deliver high quality, maintainable software
• Lead architectural discussions around feature development and software development best practice
• Involvement in performance and playback optimizations, overall app stability and profiling

Application Development

• Design, develop, test, and deploy new solutions as well as maintaining, integrating and improving existing solutions using modern technologies and industry best practices
• Ensure robust performance, responsiveness, and quality of applications, troubleshooting and debugging as needed

AI-Integrated Development

• Leverage AI-driven coding assistants like Copilot, Cursor, or Claude as a core component of the daily engineering lifecycle, including architectural design, implementation, and refactoring.
• Partner with technical leadership to establish and optimize safe, high-impact practices for utilizing AI tools within the development team.
• Drive cross-functional initiatives to integrate LLM and ML capabilities into product features, such as advanced search, discovery, and personalized content understanding.

Mentorship

• Mentor mid- and senior-level engineers, sharing technical expertise and guiding professional growth
• Participate in code reviews to maintain code quality and consistency across the team

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with product managers, designers, and other engineering teams to clarify requirements
• Coordinate with backend services and APIs to ensure seamless integration and feature delivery

Process Improvement

• Enhance software development processes and policies, driving continuous improvement in code quality, development speed, and overall team productivity
• Stay current with emerging Android technologies, libraries, and trends, recommending their adoption where beneficial

Ownership and Accountability

• Partner closely with the Android Engineering Manager on development strategies
• Ensure the application is highly responsive and performant
• Safeguard against production incidents
• Enable engineers to deliver mission-critical features and enhancements
• Identify technical risks and potential bottlenecks, proposing solutions to mitigate them

Expertise in Android Development

• Proficient in Kotlin and Java, with a solid understanding of the Android SDK and different Android versions
• Deep knowledge of Architecture Patterns and Material Design (e.g., MVVM, MVI, Clean Architecture, Compose UI)
• Experience using Gradle and Android Studio
• Experience following and implementing software design patterns.

System Design & Architecture

• Proven ability to design scalable, high-performing, and secure Android applications
• Experience integrating complex RESTful APIs and third-party libraries

Testing and Quality Assurance

• Strong experience in writing unit tests, UI tests, and automated tests using frameworks like JUnit, Espresso, and others
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions)

Performance Optimization

• Ability to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, including memory leaks, slow rendering, and network inefficiencies
• Skilled in using performance profiling and optimizations (e.g., Android Profiler, Leak Canary)

Leadership and Communication

• Ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to engineers, stakeholders, and executives
• Strong mentoring skills, with a track record of developing and inspiring high-performing teams

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• 7+ years of professional software development experience, with at least 6 years focused on Android development
• Demonstrated history of leading and delivering multiple large-scale Android projects in a production environment with multiple scrum teams in an agile process
• Proven track record of architectural ownership and driving technical decisions
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to facilitate conversations with business partners in project definition, business requirements definition and functional design sessions
• Eye for quality and user experience
• Translate business objectives into software requirements

Desired Qualifications

• Hands on software development on the Android/Android TV/Amazon/Amazon Fire TV platform
• Have shipped one or more apps to the Google Play and/or Amazon app store
• Experience working remotely with globally distributed and multiple interdisciplinary teams
• Experience working on Android projects with multi-module architecture
• Experience with assistive technologies such as JAWS/VoiceOver, ZoomText, and keyboard-only input methods
• Experience evaluating front-end code against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• Experience developing accessible front-end experiences with techniques such as TalkBack properties used in XML (labelFor, contentDescription), TalkBack announcements, dynamic text scaling, and responsive design

AI Literacy

• Hands-on, daily use of AI coding assistants such as Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent, with a clear sense of what these tools are good and bad at.
• Comfort writing effective prompts, structuring context, and evaluating AI-generated diffs critically before they land in the codebase.
• Working understanding of LLMs, embeddings, retrieval, and prompt engineering, enough to design client integrations and reason about latency, cost, and failure modes.
• Practical experience shipping or seriously prototyping at least one ML- or LLM-powered product feature (search, ranking, personalization, content understanding, in-app assistant, etc.).
• Judgment about responsible AI use: privacy, IP, attribution, and when a human review gate is required.

Bonus Skills (Nice To Have)

• Experience with Video Streaming (HLS / MPEG-DASH)
• Experience working with ExoPlayer
• Widevine DRM knowledge

Paramount+, a direct-to-consumer digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service from Paramount Global, combines live sports, breaking news, and a mountain of entertainment. The premium streaming service features an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel. The service is also the streaming home to unmatched sports programming, including every CBS Sports event, from golf to football to basketball and more, plus exclusive streaming rights for major sports properties, including some of the world’s biggest and most popular soccer leagues. Paramount+ also enables subscribers to stream local CBS stations live across the U.S. in addition to the ability to stream Paramount Streaming’s other live channels: CBSN for 24/7 news, CBS Sports HQ for sports news and analysis, and ET Live for entertainment coverage.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Hiring Salary Range: $156,800.00 - 235,200.00.

The hiring salary range for this position applies to New York, California, Colorado, Washington state, and most other geographies. Starting pay for the successful applicant depends on a variety of job-related factors, including but not limited to geographic location, market demands, experience, training, and education. The benefits available for this position include medical, dental, vision, 401(k) plan, life insurance coverage, disability benefits, tuition assistance program and PTO or, if applicable, as otherwise dictated by the appropriate Collective Bargaining Agreement. This position is bonus eligible.

What We Offer:

• Attractive compensation and comprehensive benefits packages. Check out our full list of benefits here.
• Generous paid time off.
• Complimentary subscriptions to HBO Max, Paramount+, and other Skydance streaming services and digital news products.
• Robust employee engagement opportunities, including access to exclusive screenings and events, speaker series, volunteer activities and more.

Skydance is an equal opportunity employer (EOE)

We embrace the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit. In line with the laws of the country or region in which the role is based, this includes consideration without regard to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship status, religion or belief, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, physical or mental disability, genetic information, military or protected veteran status, union status or any other category protected by applicable law.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability, you may request a reasonable accommodation during the job application and/or recruitment process. You can request reasonable accommodations by calling 212.846.5500 or by sending an email to paramountaccommodations@paramount.com. Only messages left for this purpose will be returned.