Senior Software Engineer, UI performance, Embedded, C++ in Cambridge

Teamwork makes the stream work. Roku is changing how the world watches TV. Roku is the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and we've set our sights on powering every television in the world. Roku pioneered streaming to the TV. Our mission is to be the TV streaming platform that connects the entire TV ecosystem. We connect consumers to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers unique capabilities to engage consumers. From your first day at Roku, you'll make a valuable - and valued - contribution. We're a fast-growing public company where no one is a bystander. We offer you the opportunity to delight millions of TV streamers around the world while gaining meaningful experience across a variety of disciplines.

This team spends most of its time building and improving the UI framework and components that power Roku user experiences. Our roadmap helps us accelerate our growth and scale, putting surprising new features into the hands of tens of millions of Roku users worldwide. Our developers and engineers are owners. They are motivated from within, finding and taking on a feature or project simply because that problem needs to be solved and shipped. But that individual must work together with different engineering teams, UI design, product teams, and business leadership to make things happen, which means that engineers succeed here because they can maintain that independent spirit and motivation within a deeply collaborative environment. We are the pragmatic dreamers inventing and re-inventing the world of streaming media.

The Senior Software Engineer, UI Infrastructure will contribute extensively to the embedded UI framework development, working closely with system architects to develop new features and extend current capabilities to improve system stability and performance. This role involves developing, maintaining, and enhancing the high-performance grid rendering component that powers Roku's app engine, while also building tools to support the broader development community within Roku. You will use agentic coding to accelerate feature development and testing, and collaborate with cross-functional teams including the Home Screen and EPG teams to integrate feature requests and optimize UI responsiveness. The features and performance improvements you implement directly impact millions of users every day, making this an excellent opportunity for an experienced professional who has innovative ideas for complex problems and can translate them into ultra-reliable software.

At Roku, AI agents do most of the keystroke-level coding. Engineers act as the technical leads for those agents - setting context, planning work, verifying outputs, and recovering when the agent goes off course. If you are excited about working this way, we want to talk to you. You have built fluency across the agentic engineering toolchain - coding harnesses like Claude Code or Cursor, MCP servers, custom skills, or agent frameworks. And you can describe projects where you shipped real work with these tools. You know how to drive an agent, verify its output, and ramp on an unfamiliar codebase with an agent helping you. At Roku, we're embracing AI as a powerful tool to amplify human creativity, accelerate innovation, and deliver better results for our customers. Across teams, we're exploring how AI can enhance our work - and we're only looking for people who are curious, adaptable, and excited to grow alongside these technologies.

Responsibilities:

• Develop, maintain, and enhance the high-performance grid rendering component that powers Roku's app engine.
• Use agentic coding to accelerate feature development and testing.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including the Home Screen and EPG teams to integrate feature requests and optimize UI responsiveness.
• Implement unit, integration, and functional tests to ensure high-quality user experiences across Roku devices.
• Apply deep knowledge of Linux and OS concepts to improve system stability and performance.
• Work autonomously in a distributed team environment, communicating effectively across time zones and locations.
• Participate in design discussions and code reviews to uphold best practices in embedded C++ development and system architecture.

Experience:

• 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with a focus on embedded systems or UI performance.
• Strong proficiency in C++ programming, with experience developing and optimizing rendering engines or UI frameworks.
• Experience building JavaScript or TypeScript frameworks or working on JS virtual machines and runtimes.
• Solid understanding of Linux OS concepts and experience working in Linux-based environments.
• Experience with test automation as part of the software development lifecycle.
• Familiarity with embedded development principles, particularly in mid-level firmware or system software.
• Ability to work independently and asynchronously in a distributed team environment across multiple time zones.
• Strong communication skills to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.
• A track record of delivering high-performance user experiences through efficient and maintainable code.

Hybrid Working:

Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams generally work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are generally flexible for remote work, except for employees whose specific roles or assigned office location require five days' a week attendance.

Benefits:

Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension). Employees are supported in taking time off, in accordance with local leave policies and other personal needs to support their evolving work and life needs. It's important to note that not every benefit is available in all locations or for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your recruiter.

Accommodations:

Roku welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments in accordance with applicable law. If you require reasonable accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please direct your inquiries to EmployeeRelations@Roku.com.

Culture:

Roku is a great place for people who want to work in a fast-paced environment where everyone is focused on the company's success rather than their own. We try to surround ourselves with people who are great at their jobs, who are easy to work with, and who keep their egos in check. We appreciate a sense of humor. We believe a fewer number of very talented folks can do more for less cost than a larger number of less talented teams. We're independent thinkers with big ideas who act boldly, move fast and accomplish extraordinary things through collaboration and trust. In short, at Roku you'll be part of a company that's changing how the world watches TV. We have a unique culture that we are proud of. We think of ourselves primarily as problem-solvers, which itself is a two-part idea. We come up with the solution, but the solution isn't real until it is built and delivered to the customer. That penchant for action gives us a pragmatic approach to innovation, one that has served us well since 2002.