Software Engineer, Advanced Development

About the role

Roku is seeking a Software Engineer, Build Systems, to join the Developer Experience team within the Advanced Development organization. In this role, you will design, implement, and operate the build systems that bring together every component of Roku's embedded software products — including set-top boxes, televisions, and soundbar speakers — and get them running on resource-constrained hardware. You will serve as the connective tissue between advanced engineering teams and the tools they rely on, ensuring that complex build pipelines function effectively in an AI-driven development landscape. A critical part of your work will involve enabling existing build systems to integrate with AI agents and automation, allowing autonomous build and ship workflows to operate at scale.

At Roku, AI agents and smart tools help power drafts, analysis, and repetitive workflows, while our people bring direction, judgment, and accountability. We value your AI skills if you have built fluency across the agentic engineering toolchain — coding harnesses like Claude Code or Cursor, MCP servers, custom skills, or agent frameworks. You can describe projects where you shipped real work with these tools, drive an agent, verify its output, and ramp on an unfamiliar codebase with an agent helping you.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and operate complex build systems across monolithic and multi-repository environments, spanning both Bazel and BitBake/OpenEmbedded build paths
• Build systems that bring together all components of a software product and enable it to function on the low-powered hardware found in embedded systems
• Enable and adapt the build infrastructure to integrate with AI agents and automation tools, supporting autonomous build and ship workflows
• Provide embedded software architecture input to ensure released products work efficiently within storage, memory, and processing constraints
• Operate the build system in partnership with all software development teams, delivering feature enhancements and bug fixes for engineers who depend on it
• Interpret build system output to understand both the system itself and the development goals of the teams it supports, ensuring timely and accurate support
• Iterate on build processes to improve reliability, speed, and developer experience across the organization

Requirements

• 2+ years of experience in build systems engineering or a related role
• At least 1 year designing, implementing, and operating complex build systems in both monolithic and multi-repository environments
• At least 1 year in embedded systems engineering and embedded build tooling, including Open Embedded, BitBake, Bazel, Make, and CMake
• Practical, hands-on experience with Bazel at production scale, including remote caching and cross-compilation sandboxing
• Experience with modern Linux embedded C++ development environments
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to work both independently and collaboratively in an agile environment
• Clear communication skills with the ability to explain build-system internals to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Graduate degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Advanced and demonstrable skills with generative AI tools or workflows applied to software engineering

Schedule

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 which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension)
• Support for taking time off, in accordance with local leave policies and other personal 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.

About Roku's 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.

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.