About Local Now Local Now is a free, ad-supported streaming service delivering local news, weather, sports, and lifestyle programming to viewers across virtually every connected device. As part of Allen Media Group, we operate at meaningful scale across mobile, smart TVs, streaming sticks, set-top boxes, and the web. We are now investing in a ground-up rebuild of our streaming platform with a privacy-first architecture, modern shared-code strategy, and the engineering rigor needed to grow sustainably.
We build for audiences who expect frictionless playback on any device, and for advertisers who depend on us to deliver reliable, high-quality monetization. The work is tangible: every improvement we make is felt by millions of viewers.
The Role We are hiring a Senior Platform Engineer to own backend services and content-management integration for the Local Now streaming platform. This role sits at the intersection of three things that matter most to us: the integration with our third-party content management system, the backend platform services that power every client app, and the privacy-and-data architecture that ensures we are good stewards of user information across every surface.
You will work alongside an experienced backend team (a director-level architect, a senior architect-engineer, and a senior engineer) to extend our platform services and harden CMS integration. The CMS integration in particular is load-bearing: every piece of content that reaches a viewer flows through it.
What You Will Do - Design, build, and operate backend services that abstract our content management system and serve content to client apps across many device platforms.
- Define and evolve API contracts for cross-platform client consumption, including content metadata, playback manifests, ad-decision endpoints, and personalization signals.
- Partner with the CMS vendor and internal stakeholders to integrate, troubleshoot, and extend content workflows end-to-end.
- Implement privacy-first patterns server-side: consent propagation, data minimization, DSAR plumbing, and PII handling at the platform layer.
- Instrument the platform for observability and operational analytics - error rates, latency, content-availability, and ad-decisioning performance.
- Work with frontend, platform, and ad-tech engineers to ensure the backend evolves in step with what clients and monetization actually need.
- Contribute to architecture review, code review, and the broader engineering bar of the team.
What We Are Looking For - 7+ years of backend engineering experience building production services at scale.
- Strong proficiency in C# and .NET Core, along with Go, Kotlin, Python, TypeScript/Node, or similar, and the discipline to write services that are maintainable years from now.
- Experience integrating with third-party SaaS platforms - particularly those that own a critical part of the user-facing experience (CMS, identity, billing, ad-serving).
- Solid grasp of API design, distributed-systems patterns, caching, queueing, and the operational realities of running services in production.
- Deep experience with ad tech ecosystems, including server-side ad insertion (SSAI) with MediaTailor, beaconing, and integrating Ad SDKs such as The Trade Desk (UID2) and SpringServe.
- Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including IaC patterns and secure-by-default service deployment.
- Awareness of privacy, security, and compliance considerations as engineering concerns, not legal afterthoughts.
- Excellent collaboration skills; comfortable working with vendors, frontend teams, and product partners simultaneously.
- Extensive experience with SQL, including writing stored procedures, and designing scalable analytics table structures.
Nice to Have - Experience integrating with a media-industry CMS (Quickplay, Brightcove, Vimeo OTT, MediaKind, or similar).
- Streaming or media-tech background - playback manifests, ad-stitching/SSAI, DRM, content packaging.
- Familiarity with privacy/consent technology (Fides, OneTrust, Ethyca, or similar) and DSAR engineering workflows.
- Experience using AI coding assistants effectively to ship more in less time without sacrificing quality.
Allen Media Group is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to these characteristics. We are dedicated to providing a workplace free from harassment and discrimination.
