Sr. Platform Engineer, Media Technology

About the Role

The Technology Division at the National Geographic Society (NGS) creates digital experiences and delivers information technology services to amplify NGS’s impact. As part of the Media Technology Team, Senior Platform Engineers enable media activities, supporting video production, digital preservation, library and collections management, media ingest, workflow design, and system engineering. This role focuses on managing and improving digital asset management platforms, ensuring operational efficiency, and driving innovation in media technology.

Responsibilities

• Architecture & Engineering (60%)
  • Manage the design, development, maintenance, and support of digital asset management platform components, including automation routines and system integrations.
  • Develop software components and automated unit tests.
  • Work with the DevOps team to maintain and extend build and release pipelines.
  • Oversee the creation and maintenance of architectural and operational documentation.
  • Collaborate with customers and product managers to translate functional and non-functional requirements into actionable work, focusing on technical feasibility and technology investment choices.
  • Work with IT infrastructure and operations teams to ensure systems are configured with appropriate capacity, data protection, and security compliance.
• Operations & Technical Support (20%)
  • Oversee technical administration duties for the digital asset management system and Special Collections systems, including software upgrades and patch management.
  • Define service levels for platform components and ensure observability in media-related systems.
  • Investigate, troubleshoot, and perform root-cause analysis for incidents and problems with systems and automations supporting media activities.
  • Produce incident reports and conduct post-mortem reviews.
  • Conduct reliability assessments and execute work plans to improve service availability, reliability, and performance.
• Management & Innovation (20%)
  • Provide technical and architectural direction to on- and off-shore software developers in collaboration with the NGS architects team.
  • Collaborate with delivery managers, product managers, and Technology management to enhance work management processes and best practices.
  • Coach and mentor other engineers and participate in communities of practice for continuous improvement.
  • Stay current with advancements in information technology, digital asset management, and agile methodologies.

Requirements

• A minimum of 7 years of experience working in diverse, data-rich, digital environments, especially cloud platforms and architectures.
• Understanding of workflows and complex digital systems.
• Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS), Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience).

Skills

• Knowledge of digital asset management systems, digital archive systems, integrated library systems, and collections management software.
• Experience with digital media operations, including ingest, distribution, transcoding, compression, workflow design, rights management, and access control.
• Experience with scripting, automation, orchestration, and integration with enterprise platforms in SaaS/PaaS/IaaS environments using APIs.
• Experience with (meta)data in various formats, including storing, processing, and transforming data from diverse sources.
• Broad knowledge of server, database, and storage infrastructures (on-premise and cloud) and hands-on database and server administration.
• Familiarity with information security and IT service management concepts and processes.
• Experience with shell scripting and service administration on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
• Experience developing applications, automations, and scripts using Python and/or NodeJS, including debugging and writing automated tests.
• Knowledge of work management software such as Jira, Monday.com, Wrike, or Asana.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical problems to non-technical audiences.
• Extensive experience with agile software development methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and working with remote/hybrid teams.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Experience with Git and distributed source control management, including branching, merging, and patching.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience working in a special collections or university environment.
• Experience using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tooling and principles, particularly Terraform.
• Experience with NLE software and workflows, including Adobe Premiere.

This is a fixed-term position with a targeted end date of December 31, 2032. No direct supervision of staff is required.

Pay

The salary range for this position is $130,150 – $137,000.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Engaging wellness program.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan with matching contributions after 6 months of employment.
• Flexible paid time off: up to 22 days of paid annual leave per calendar year (15 days for new hires in their first year, prorated) and 10 days of sick leave.
• 12 paid holidays and a paid winter break between December 25 and 31 (exceptions may apply for certain roles).
• Paid parental leave, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and fertility benefits.
• Learning and development opportunities.
• Lifestyle Spending Account.
• Pet adoption assistance and insurance.
• Pre-tax transportation benefits with a generous employer subsidy.
• Employer-paid life insurance and disability benefits.
• National Geographic discounts and perks.

Schedule

This is a remote position. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States and are not eligible for visa sponsorship.