Senior Full‑Stack OTT Engineer

VIM Media, LLC / WatchVIM is a culture‑forward streaming service featuring original and curated film & TV. We’re rebuilding our web platform for speed, scale, and a best‑in‑class viewing experience. The Role: We’re seeking a hands‑on Senior Full‑Stack OTT Engineer to rebuild WatchVIM.com with feature parity and targeted improvements (SVOD/AVOD/TVOD, DRM, ads, analytics, SEO, and an internal CMS). You’ll own architecture through launch, collaborating directly with our founder and content team. Contract: 3–6 months to start (extendable). Location: Remote (PT‑friendly). Engagement: 1099/Corp‑to‑Corp. Responsibilities • Define architecture and stand up cloud infra (AWS S3/CloudFront, CI/CD, monitoring). • Implement backend APIs (auth, catalog, search, entitlements, watch history). • Build a modern Next.js frontend with strong SEO and accessibility. • Integrate video pipeline (encode/package DRM‑protected HLS/DASH) and the web player. • Add subscriptions (Stripe Billing), TVOD, and promo flows; handle taxes/receipts. • Implement AVOD (Google IMA SDK/VAST); configure ad rules and reporting. • Ship headless CMS for editorial ops (Strapi/Keystone) with RBAC. • Wire analytics (Mixpanel/Amplitude + player QoE) and dashboards. • Ensure security, privacy, and WCAG 2.1 AA compliance. • Create runbooks, docs, and a smooth cutover plan. Must‑Have Experience • Shipped at least one end‑to‑end OTT/VOD web app in production. • Next.js/React + TypeScript and Node.js/NestJS (or Python/Django) in production. • HLS/DASH, captions, thumbnailing; DRM (Widevine/FairPlay/PlayReady) via Mux/Bitmovin/MediaConvert. • Stripe Billing (subscriptions, trials, coupons) and webhook flows. • Google IMA SDK, VAST/VPAID ad integration (pre/mid/post‑roll). • AWS (S3, CloudFront), CI/CD, IaC (Terraform), observability. • Security best practices, performance tuning, accessibility. Nice to Have • Server‑side ad insertion (SSAI) experience. • Recommendations/personalization, continue‑watching/resume. • Multi‑tenant or multi‑region deployments. • Experience migrating users/content between platforms.