Staff Software Engineer

Role Summary: 

Volley's mission is to bring joy to our customers through AI and voice powered games. We believe that AI/LLMs and voice control can create new types of immersive gaming experiences and will become a primary way people access entertainment in bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms, and cars. Our portfolio of games includes well known titles including Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Song Quiz and many others on smart TVs, Mobile and Alexa devices.

We’re looking for a Staff Engineer with deep expertise in front-end/UI engineering and building high-performance interfaces across living room platforms, including smart TVs, set-top boxes, and gaming consoles. This is a rare opportunity to shape how millions of users interact with our games, developing seamless, responsive experiences that span multiple platforms and input modalities.

What You’ll Do at Volley

• Design and implementation of cross-platform front-end systems that power our next generation of games, with a focus on performance, responsiveness, and usability.
• Build immersive web frameworks including React, WebGPU/WebGL, etc. and custom-rendered UIs on constrained hardware platforms (e.g., Roku, Fire TV).
• Define and evolve our design system and component libraries for consistency across platforms while supporting device-specific optimizations.
• Mentor and guide engineers in front-end architecture, code quality, and performance engineering.
• Collaborate with AI and platform engineers to build tightly integrated, voice-enabled experiences that feel fluid and immersive on TV-class devices.
• Drive tooling, testing frameworks, and observability efforts to improve reliability and quality of front-end systems at scale.
• Represent the front-end discipline in company-wide planning and technical strategy discussions, ensuring user experience is a core part of our product architecture.

We're Excited About You Because You Have

• 7+ years of software engineering experience with a strong emphasis on front-end/UI development, including delivering visually immersive production web apps/games.
• Deep experience building and shipping performant, scalable UIs using HTML5, React, WebGL/WebGPU and similar frameworks.
• Experience with optimization techniques (including Wasm) for rendering performance, memory usage, and startup time on constrained devices, e.g. SmartTVs and set top boxes.
• Experience collaborating cross-functionally with design, product, and platform teams to shape end-to-end UX.
• A passion for observability, testability, and maintainability of front-end codebases.
• Strong mentoring abilities and a track record of elevating engineering practices across teams.

Bonus Points For

• Hands-on experience with platforms such as Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, or Android TV
• Knowledge of game engines such as Unity or Phaser
• Experience with pixel streaming
• Experience integrating AI/LLM-driven UX patterns in web or app interfaces.
• Familiarity with voice interaction design, speech-to-text systems, or natural language interfaces

Our Stack

• Typescript & Node.js

• React & React Native (Fire TV)

• Brighterscript (Roku)

• DynamoDB,
• PostgreSQL, Redis
• Kubernetes

The Hiring Process

• Stage 1: (Preliminary Video Call) with a member of our recruitment team
• Stage 2: (Video Chat) with Engineering leadership
• Stage 3: (Onsite) with various partners and team members
• Stage 4: (Offer)
• Stage 5: (Founder Chat) with our Founder

What’s in it for You

• Your medical, dental, and vision insurance is 100% covered by Volley, for yourself and all dependents and we match 401k!
• We offer a flexible, hybrid work-from-home and in-office work model.
• We offer 4 weeks of paid time off (enforced 2-week minimum), 16 paid holidays, 40 hours of bereavement leave, and unlimited sick days.
• Our generous parental leave policy includes 24 weeks at 100% pay for birthing parents and 12 weeks at 100% pay for non-birthing parents.
• We offer visa support for eligible candidates, making relocating for the job smoother and more streamlined.
• A full breakdown of our benefits is here!

For Pay Transparency: The base salary range for this position is $189,477 - $260,531 annually, based on a local (San Francisco) hire. The final offer amount may depend on experience, education, skills, and location. Base pay is one part of the total package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work.

About Us

Volley is the leading developer of AI-powered games for Amazon Alexa, Roku TVs, and mobile devices. Our games attract millions of users every month. Popular Volley games include Song Quiz, Jeopardy!, and The Price Is Right.

We believe voice interfaces will become the main way people access entertainment in their living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and cars. We’re building a bundled subscription product similar to Netflix or Spotify for the emerging category of “AI-powered games.”

Volley was founded by Max Child and James Wilsterman in 2016. We're headquartered in downtown San Francisco in the historic Phelan Building! We’re a quickly growing team that truly enjoys working together. If you think you would enjoy creating joyful games on top of a rapidly evolving AI technology stack, please get in touch!

Volley believes in an inclusive workplace and is committed to building a team from a variety of backgrounds. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive the other benefits and privileges of employment.

Underrepresented candidates and candidates from nontraditional backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply!