Senior R&D Engineer

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: D
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time
DEPARTMENT: Research & Development
LOCATION: London Light House; Salford – Dock House; Glasgow – Pacific Quay (3 days a week – Hybrid)
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: Up to £67,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. If you’d like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there’s no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

You’ll be working as a Senior R&D Engineer in the Media Applied Research Area of BBC R&D.

This area works across industry shaping and defining connected digital television platforms and seeking opportunities to exploit them with innovative new services.

The team you’ll be working in has responsibility for researching new video codecs, shaping picture quality analysis and the technical design, assurance and optimisation of the BBC’s technical output on IP distribution and broadcast platforms, and advising on the technical architecture of media distribution and discovery platforms.

This area works across industry shaping and defining connected digital television platforms and seeking opportunities to exploit them with innovative new services.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

As Senior R&D Engineer you will be responsible for leading and conducting R&D activities and transferring results in order to identify and solve complex technical problems and carry out ground breaking research in relevant areas, delivering  solutions for the BBC, informing the BBC’s decisions, help create products, services, and/or contribute to global standards.  Collaboration with third parties (such as manufacturers and universities) is required in order to achieve these goals.

Projects in the area generally produce an audience benefit within 12 months or provide long term research and support for the BBC’s codec strategy.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

You’ll have a background in video coding and video standards development ideally in a research and development or academic background. You should have a track record of creating and/or maintaining IPR in the field of video codec development. You’ll have strong skills in using software development as a tool for evaluation/experimentation/learning purposes, algorithm validation and benchmarking, although producing production-ready code is not required.

We want a Senior R&D engineer that can identify and resolve important problems and answer research questions using creativity and inventiveness and is also ready to get hands-on with our broadcast and IP distribution infrastructure.
Some industry knowledge and familiarity with encoding methods and products in use in the broadcast or media streaming industry would be beneficial.

You’re enthusiastic, curious and full of ideas. You keep up to speed with industry trends and technology developments and can collaborate across the sector.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND SKILLS

ESSENTIAL

•    Track record of creative thinking, analysis and good judgement to propose innovative solutions to technical problems and to invent and manage new IPR.
•    Substantial experience of video compression and related standards development.
•    Demonstrable evidence of collaborative working across multi-disciplinary teams and being able to transfer results of research in the form of technical reports, inputs to standards bodies, software prototypes or licensing to manufacturers.
•    Strong skills in using software development as a tool for evaluation/experimentation/learning purposes, algorithm validation and benchmarking (e.g. C, C++, Java).
•    Ability to carry out formal picture quality evaluation using objective methodologies and awareness of subjective methods.

DESIRED BUT NOT REQUIRED

•    Working knowledge of video codecs and systems such as AVC, HEVC, VVC, and awareness of futures developments in MPEG, e.g. use of neural networks.
•    Understanding of TV industry standards (broadcast and IP) for the distribution of content from MPEG, DVB, W3C, etc., and  associated systems engineering of such technologies.
•    Strong understanding of issues around video engineering or a willingness to learn its use in all aspects of media workflows.
•    Experience of leading project work in a research environment, being able to motivate self and others to learn new knowledge and skills and produce original work.