Senior Quality Engineer, Media

A bit about Cantina:

Cantina, founded by Sean Parker, is a new social platform with the most advanced AI character creator. Build, share, and interact with AI bots and your friends directly in the Cantina or across the internet.

Cantina bots are lifelike, social creatures, capable of interacting wherever humans go on the internet. Recreate yourself using powerful AI, imagine someone new, or choose from thousands of existing characters. Bots are a new media type that offer a way for creators to share infinitely scalable and personalized content experiences combined with seamless group chat across voice, video, and text.

If you're excited about the potential AI has to shape human creativity and social interactions, join us in building the future!

A bit about the role:

The media team at Cantina is building one of the most advanced platforms for real-time and streaming media in the world. From globally distributed infrastructure to device-level audio/video processing and machine learning techniques, we are passionate about delivering high-performance, high-quality systems. We’re seeking engineers who thrive on solving hard problems alongside exceptional teammates.

As a Senior Quality Engineer on this team, you will partner closely with developers and fellow QA engineers to ensure the robustness of the audio and video infrastructure powering real-time interactions in the Cantina app. You’ll play a critical role in guaranteeing that every new feature meets the highest standards of quality and delivers a seamless, compelling experience for users who want to chat with friends and AI-powered bots.

A bit about the work:

• Design, execute, document, and maintain comprehensive manual test cases for complex media features.
• Work closely with developers to create test plans for new features.
• Perform regression and acceptance testing of media components prior to release.
• Analyze test results and provide actionable insights to elevate platform performance.
• Drive refinements in the team’s software development processes and practices.

A bit about you:

• 3+ years of professional experience as a Quality Assurance Engineer, with a proven record of elevating quality in complex systems.
• Expert at using QA management tools like Jira and Testrail.
• Skilled in testing mobile applications across iOS and Android, with a deep understanding of platform-specific nuances.
• Proficient with debugging and diagnostic tools like Charles Proxy and TC.
• Clear and precise communicator, able to deliver detailed, actionable bug reports and collaborate seamlessly across teams.
• Meticulous attention to detail, capable of identifying subtle issues that affect user experience or system performance.
• Results-driven and dependable in meeting commitments, while thriving in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
• Eager to adopt new tools, techniques, and technologies that raise the QA and engineering bar.

Preferred Experience:

• Prior experience testing real-time or streaming audio and video systems.
• Familiarity with streaming concepts (frame rate, resolution, bit rate, codecs).
• Knowledge of TCP/IP networking and the impact of bandwidth, latency, or packet loss on audio/video quality.
• Strong command-line skills in Unix/Linux, including tools like make, ssh, and bash.
• Experience evaluating app performance, including CPU and battery usage.

Location:

We have offices located in Sunnyvale, CA and Brooklyn, NY. While we offer fully remote and hybrid employment opportunities, our Media Engineering team strongly desires candidates to be available (or willing to relocate) to work in the Bay Area. For reference, 95% of the Media Engineering team works from the Bay Area.

Pay Equity:

In compliance with Pay Transparency Laws, the base salary range for this role is between $110,000 - $135,000. When determining compensation, a number of factors will be considered: skills, experience, job scope, location, and competitive compensation market data.

Benefits:

• Health Care — 99% of premiums for medical, vision, dental are fully paid for by Cantina, plus One Medical membership.
• Monthly Wellness Stipend — $500/month to use on whatever you’d like!
• Rest and Recharge — 15 PTO days per year, 10 sick days, all Federal holidays, and 2 floating holidays.
• 401(K) — Eligible to participate on day one of employment.
• Parental Leave & Fertility Support
• Competitive Salary & Equity
• Lunch and snacks provided for in-office employees.
• WFH equipment provided for full-time hybrid/remote employees.