Senior Video Architect & Engineer

Senior Video Architect & Engineer

Excelacom is a global consulting and technology solutions firm solving client's complex business and technology challenges through a mix of consulting expertise, telecom-focused software, and managed services within the communications and media industries.

You are a hands-on Senior Video Architect & Engineer with strong expertise in Cable Video Architecting, Video Codecs, Rate Control strategies, HDR workflows, Packaging, CDN, and commercial transcoders. You are comfortable working within large-scale video delivery laboratory environments and have experience doing so in your background with major Cable TV IP & QAM Video Operators.

As a Senior Video Engineering Architect, you'll contribute to client engagements by delivering insights, building deliverables, and leading workstreams. You'll be expected to bring strong engineering thinking, and a proactive mindset to drive client laboratory engineering as well as triage & solve problems to deliver successful results.

Role and Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, engineering, integration, and validation activities for large-scale cable video delivery platforms supporting IP video, QAM video, streaming, and hybrid delivery environments.
• Design and evaluate end-to-end video workflows across ingest, encoding, transcoding, packaging, encryption, origin, CDN distribution, playback, monitoring, and operational support.
• Serve as a hands-on technical authority for video codec strategy, including MPEG-2, H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, AV1, HDR, SDR, 4K/UHD, adaptive bitrate, and related video quality optimization approaches.
• Develop and optimize rate control strategies, bitrate ladders, GOP structures, profile settings, resolution tiers, and encoding parameters to balance video quality, bandwidth efficiency, device compatibility, and delivery cost.
• Support HDR video workflows, including HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, tone mapping, color-space handling, metadata preservation, SDR/HDR compatibility, and validation across playback devices.
• Engineer and validate packaging workflows for HLS, DASH, CMAF, fragmented MP4, transport stream, and other video distribution formats used in cable, streaming, and multi-platform delivery environments.
• Work with commercial transcoder platforms and video processing systems to configure, test, tune, troubleshoot, and operationalize encoding and packaging workflows.
• Support CDN architecture and delivery optimization, including origin configuration, cache behavior, manifest handling, segment delivery, latency reduction, throughput optimization, and fault isolation.
• Participate in video lab design, test planning, proof-of-concept execution, system certification, regression testing, and production-readiness validation for new video technologies and platform upgrades.
• Troubleshoot complex video delivery issues across the full signal path, including encoding artifacts, bitrate instability, packaging errors, manifest issues, playback failures, CDN delivery problems, latency, buffering, and device-specific behavior.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, operations, vendors, and client stakeholders to define requirements, assess technical options, document architecture decisions, and recommend scalable video platform solutions.
• Analyze video quality and delivery performance using objective and subjective quality metrics, monitoring platforms, logs, probes, packet captures, player analytics, and lab test results.
• Support integration with conditional access, DRM, ad insertion, blackout management, metadata, guide data, entitlement, and subscriber-facing video service platforms where applicable.
• Create architecture diagrams, workflow documentation, test plans, lab validation procedures, implementation runbooks, operational standards, and executive-level technical deliverables.
• Evaluate emerging video technologies and industry trends, including next-generation codecs, cloud video processing, low-latency streaming, IP video migration, QAM-to-IP transition, edge delivery, and advanced video quality optimization.
• Provide technical leadership during vendor evaluations, platform selection, RFP/RFI support, solution design sessions, and business development activities related to video infrastructure modernization.
• Partner with major Cable TV, IP video, and QAM video operators to support modernization initiatives, improve platform reliability, reduce operational complexity, and enhance video service quality.
• Support system development, integration, and testing activities across video delivery platforms, ensuring solutions meet performance, scalability, reliability, and operational support requirements.
• Identify process improvements, automation opportunities, and operational efficiencies within video engineering, lab validation, deployment, and production support workflows.
• Work closely with clients to translate business and service objectives into practical video architecture, engineering, and implementation plans.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in video architecture, video engineering, video operations, or related infrastructure roles supporting large-scale cable, telecom, media, or streaming environments.
• Deep hands-on experience with cable video delivery architectures, including IP video, QAM video, hybrid video delivery, linear video, VOD, and large-scale operator video platforms.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end video delivery workflows, including ingest, encoding, transcoding, packaging, encryption, origin, CDN distribution, playback, monitoring, and operational support.
• Demonstrated experience working with major Cable TV, IP video, and/or QAM video operators in lab, engineering, architecture, validation, or production-support environments.
• Strong technical knowledge of video codecs and compression standards, including MPEG-2, H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, AV1, and related codec profiles, levels, and encoding parameters.
• Experience developing, tuning, or validating rate control strategies, bitrate ladders, adaptive bitrate profiles, GOP structures, resolution tiers, and video quality optimization approaches.
• Hands-on experience with HDR and SDR video workflows, including HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, tone mapping, color space, metadata handling, and device playback validation.
• Experience with video packaging and streaming formats, including HLS, MPEG-DASH, CMAF, fragmented MP4, MPEG transport stream, manifests, segments, and multi-device delivery requirements.
• Experience configuring, testing, supporting, or optimizing commercial transcoder and video processing platforms in lab or production environments.
• Strong understanding of CDN delivery concepts, including origin services, caching behavior, manifest and segment delivery, latency, throughput, resiliency, and content delivery troubleshooting.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex video delivery issues across the full video signal path, including encoding artifacts, bitrate instability, manifest issues, playback failures, buffering, CDN delivery problems, audio/video sync issues, and device-specific behavior.
• Experience using video analysis, monitoring, and troubleshooting tools to assess video quality, delivery performance, logs, packet flows, player behavior, and service-impacting conditions.
• Familiarity with DRM, conditional access, entitlement, encryption, ad insertion, metadata, guide data, blackout management, and subscriber-facing video service integration points.
• Experience designing and executing lab validation, proof-of-concept testing, regression testing, certification testing, and production-readiness activities for video platforms and workflows.
• Ability to create technical documentation, architecture diagrams, test plans, operational runbooks, implementation plans, and stakeholder-facing deliverables.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills with the ability to work across engineering, operations, product, vendors, and client stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex video architecture and engineering concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Telecommunications, Information Technology, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Good time management and collaboration skills
• Experience supporting security patching and Linux OS
• Exposure to high availability and self-healing video delivery architectures

EEO Statement: Excelacom, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Any decision affecting employment, compensation, promotion, or transfer will be based solely on personal qualifications and merit, regardless of sex, race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, disability, age, results of genetic testing, service in the military, pregnancy, childbirth or other related medical conditions or any other factor protected under applicable law.