Senior Software Engineer, Streaming

Company Overview

Orbis Operations is a technology company that delivers sovereign intelligence and decision capabilities to the United States Government and its allies. We convert complex information and operational systems into decisive outcomes, giving public institutions and critical enterprises the tools to move faster, see clearer, and act first in an increasingly contested world.

We are not a consulting firm and not a systems integrator. Every Orbis team is built around practitioners who have operated at the mission edge, and every engagement is judged on one thing: whether it produces working capability, not slide decks. Solutions forged from experience; that is how we build, and it is how we hire.

Orbis is seeking a Senior Software Engineer within Catalyst Data Platform that will own the implementation of key features within our data pipelines-ensuring high-performance movement of data from distributed edge environments into our core platform. You'll work across different system components to deliver reliable, end-to-end functionality and contribute to the technical evolution. You will work on critical end-to-end features that orchestrate the flow of real-time data from distributed sources into our platform.

At this level, you can seamlessly move across our stack to identify systemic bottlenecks and optimize high-throughput pipelines that maintain stability under extreme scale.

TRAVEL:
International travel to Middle East and geopolitical hot zones, up to 25% per calendar year is required. Please apply only if you can meet this requirement.

• Architect and implement features across the full streaming lifecycle, from ingestion and buffering/jitter handling through to distribution and final packaging/multiplexing workflows
• Partner with product and engineering stakeholders to refine requirements, identify technical constraints, and deliver solutions that balance product vision with system integrity
• Evaluate and document critical technical trade-offs for Catalyst production systems, providing clear architectural rationale for high-impact design decisions
• Design and implement high-performance modules for media ingress, relay, and packetization logic (e.g., handling RTSP, RTP, or WebRTC protocols), including support for KLV-encoded telemetry metadata extraction and synchronization
• Act as the subject matter expert for a core protocol subsystem, managing complex edge cases and ensuring interoperability between diverse hardware sources and software consumers
• Establish and uphold quality standards by implementing rigorous testing (e.g., chaos engineering and property-based testing) and monitoring critical streaming metrics (e.g., end-to-end latency, jitter, and throughput) via observability platforms like Datadog or Prometheus
• Participate in on-call rotations and incident response, conducting post-incident reviews to implement preventative mitigations and improve system reliability
• Contribute to the evolution of automated deployment pipelines (e.g., using Git Hub Actions, Docker containerization, and Kubernetes deployments) to ensure reliable, high-integrity delivery of streaming modules across the platform
• Formally mentor junior engineers on protocol fundamentals and lead team rituals such as design reviews and planning sessions
• Travel up to 25% for customer engagement, architecture reviews, or team collaboration (Middle East)

• 5-7 years of experience in real-time data streaming with demonstrated ownership of meaningful product surfaces
• Deep working knowledge of media session negotiation and transport layer mechanics and challenges like jitter, sequencing, multiplexing, and reconnection and backoff handling
• Hands-on experience with streaming transport, including frame-level audio, video, and data handling and timestamp reconciliation
• Strong Go engineering skills with a strong grasp of protocol-level behavior
• Exceptional communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences; you routinely interface with customers, product leaders, and engineering teams to gather requirements, articulate trade-offs, and drive alignment from initial design to…