Mid Level Software Engineer - TV Core Playback Team
BBC
Date: 12 hours ago
City: Salford, England
Contract type: Full time
JOB DETAILS
JOB BAND: B
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time
DEPARTMENT: TV Core - Playback Team
LOCATION: Salford - Media City - Hybrid
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £42,400.00 - £52,400.00 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
Are you passionate about solving technical challenges that directly impact the quality of streaming experiences for millions of users? Do you enjoy working with core JavaScript, browser APIs, and performance tuning across a wide range of TV devices?
We’re looking for a mid-level Software Engineer to join our Playback team, which focuses exclusively on TV application development — not web or mobile. This team ensures smooth and reliable media playback on smart TVs and set-top boxes, tackling streaming performance, buffering prevention, and device-specific playback issues.
Important Note: This is not a frontend role. If your experience lies primarily in developing UI-heavy applications using frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue, this role may not be the right fit. We’re looking for someone comfortable working closer to the runtime — solving system-level problems in JavaScript and improving playback performance on embedded platforms.
WHY JOIN THE TEAM
You’ll be part of a team that works on:
Improving algorithms for smoother, more reliable media playback
Debugging and optimising JavaScript on TV platforms, often in constrained environments
Supporting both MSE playback and native playback technologies
Investigating and resolving playback issues across a broad range of devices
Building scalable, maintainable code with a strong focus on performance and resilience
Key Responsibilities & Impact
We’re looking for someone who:
You will have a solid grasp of software design principles and common design patterns
Familiarity with Agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban
Have Experience working in structured software teams with established best practices
Ability to deliver high-quality, maintainable code as part of a collaborative team
Essential Criteria
This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.
Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.
For any general queries, please contact: [email protected]
Redeployment
The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.
JOB BAND: B
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time
DEPARTMENT: TV Core - Playback Team
LOCATION: Salford - Media City - Hybrid
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £42,400.00 - £52,400.00 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
Are you passionate about solving technical challenges that directly impact the quality of streaming experiences for millions of users? Do you enjoy working with core JavaScript, browser APIs, and performance tuning across a wide range of TV devices?
We’re looking for a mid-level Software Engineer to join our Playback team, which focuses exclusively on TV application development — not web or mobile. This team ensures smooth and reliable media playback on smart TVs and set-top boxes, tackling streaming performance, buffering prevention, and device-specific playback issues.
Important Note: This is not a frontend role. If your experience lies primarily in developing UI-heavy applications using frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue, this role may not be the right fit. We’re looking for someone comfortable working closer to the runtime — solving system-level problems in JavaScript and improving playback performance on embedded platforms.
WHY JOIN THE TEAM
You’ll be part of a team that works on:
Improving algorithms for smoother, more reliable media playback
Debugging and optimising JavaScript on TV platforms, often in constrained environments
Supporting both MSE playback and native playback technologies
Investigating and resolving playback issues across a broad range of devices
Building scalable, maintainable code with a strong focus on performance and resilience
Key Responsibilities & Impact
We’re looking for someone who:
- Has a passion for continuous improvement and a collaborative mindset
- Enjoys sharing knowledge and learning from others
- Takes a logical, methodical approach to solving complex problems
- Communicates clearly with both technical and non-technical colleagues
- Is proactive in setting learning and development goals
- Has experience designing and delivering robust software in fast-paced environments
- Cares deeply about quality, testing, and engineering best practices
You will have a solid grasp of software design principles and common design patterns
Familiarity with Agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban
Have Experience working in structured software teams with established best practices
Ability to deliver high-quality, maintainable code as part of a collaborative team
Essential Criteria
- Proficient in JavaScript (ES6+) and/or TypeScript, especially outside of UI frameworks
- Strong debugging skills, including identifying memory leaks and performance bottlenecks
- Interest in working with media playback technologies (e.g. MSE, DASH, HLS) — prior experience is not essential
- Experience writing automated tests, including unit and integration tests
- Comfortable working with APIs using fetch or XHR, and parsing structured data formats (e.g. JSON, XML)
- Experience with backend services and full-stack software development
- Understanding of operational concerns such as performance, reliability, monitoring, and security
- Experience working with TV platforms (e.g. Tizen, webOS, Android TV)
- Exposure to media streaming protocols or playback frameworks (e.g. DASH.js, HLS, MSE, HTML5 Video)
- Experience developing accessible applications
- Familiarity with open-source practices or contributions
- Understanding of how to optimise code for low-powered or embedded environments
- Experience mentoring junior engineers or supporting a learning-focused team culture
This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.
Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.
For any general queries, please contact: [email protected]
Redeployment
The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.
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