Senior Audio​/Video Engineer

About Knightscope

Knightscope is a security technology company building the Nation’s First Autonomous Security Force. The Company combines autonomous machines, advanced software, and human expertise to help protect people, property, and critical infrastructure. Knightscope’s long‑term mission is to make the United States of America the safest country in the world.

Knightscope is seeking two Senior Audio/Video Engineers to own the real‑time audio and video infrastructure across the ICM and Signals platforms. These engineers will be responsible for the full A/V stack — from WebRTC ingest and GStreamer pipeline architecture to low‑latency audio processing and multi‑stream rendering. Given the thin talent pool for combined WebRTC and low‑latency audio expertise, both positions will be recruited simultaneously.

Full‑time, on‑site at Sunnyvale HQ (No relocation provided)

• Design, build, and maintain the end‑to‑end real‑time video pipeline:
  WebRTC/RTSP/RTMP ingest, hardware‑accelerated transcoding, and simultaneous multi‑stream rendering for up to 10 concurrent robot video feeds.
• Architect and optimize GStreamer‑based multi‑branch pipelines for video capture, processing, recording, and cloud upload (S3)—including codec selection, pad/cap negotiation, and plugin development.
• Own the full audio subsystem: real‑time two‑way audio, SIP/VoIP integration (pjsip/Asterisk), text‑to‑speech (AWS Polly), and talk‑down functionality with a sub‑200 ms end‑to‑end round‑trip latency target.
• Implement and optimize WebRTC signaling, ICE, DTLS‑SRTP, and media server components for reliable low‑latency communication across distributed robot deployments.
• Profile, debug, and tune A/V pipeline performance for low latency, high throughput, and resilience under concurrent multi‑robot load and variable network conditions.
• Build Make‑a‑Clip functionality enabling operators to extract, annotate, and store video segments from live and recorded feeds.
• Define and maintain A/V API contracts in collaboration with ICM and Signals platform engineers; contribute to code reviews, technical documentation, and on‑call runbooks.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to architectural decisions across the A/V stack.

• 7–10 years of software engineering experience specializing in real‑time audio and video systems in production environments.
• Deep expertise in WebRTC — including signaling protocols, ICE/STUN/TURN, DTLS‑SRTP, RTP/RTCP, and media server architecture (Janus, mediasoup, or equivalent).
• Strong hands‑on proficiency with GStreamer at the developer level: building and debugging complex multi‑branch media pipelines, working with elements, pads, caps, and custom plugins.
• Proficiency in C/C++ (C++11/14/17) for performance‑critical media and networking code;
  Python for tooling and automation.
• Solid experience with SIP/VoIP protocols and stacks (pjsip, Asterisk, or equivalent) and low‑latency audio processing.
• Strong understanding of audio/video codecs (H.264/H.265, VP9, AAC, Opus) and streaming protocols (RTSP, RTMP, HLS, RTP).
• Experience with AWS media services (S3, Kinesis Video Streams, Polly, or equivalent) and cloud‑based media pipeline architectures.
• Familiarity with hardware‑accelerated video processing (NVIDIA NVENC/NVDEC, V4L2, or equivalent) is a strong plus.
• BS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.

• Base Salary: $155,000 – $210,000 each (DOE)
• Equity:
  Stock options
• Benefits:
  Medical, dental, vision, 401(k), paid time off
• Location Requirement:
  Full‑time, on‑site at Sunnyvale HQ