Software Engineer
I design and ship resilient software at scale, from cloud infrastructure and APIs to the video players and streaming platforms behind services millions rely on every day.
Live · OTNet circle player
About
Samuel East
Senior Software Engineer with 15+ years experience, specialising in media streaming. Cardiff, UK.
I have been working in software engineering for over 15 years, with a deep focus on media streaming, running my own company and building services across the industry. For the past five years I have been contracted to two of the most demanding streaming environments around: two years at NBC PeacockTV across PeacockTV, SkyShowTime, and NowTV, and two years at 3SS building Vodafone's next generation set top box from the ground up. I wrapped up the Vodafone contract at the end of March 2026 and am available now.
With over 15 years of engineering experience, I specialise in video player architecture, DRM integration (Widevine, PlayReady, FairPlay), adaptive streaming (HLS, DASH, CMAF), and cross platform delivery across web, Samsung Tizen, LG WebOS, Xfinity, and custom STB hardware.
I ship reliable, performant video experiences at scale. Whether it's reducing video start times, solving playback issues on constrained devices, or architecting a player that handles live, VOD, catchup, and recordings, I deliver.
On the AI side, I've been actively building services with Claude and Codex. I built my own full AI suite desktop app in Rust and TypeScript (vybecoding.sh), and I'm using that suite to build mobile apps in Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android, desktop apps with Electron, and monolithic web platforms with a unified API powering everything end to end.
I understand the pros and cons of vibe coding. I still believe in reading and understanding the code that gets produced, and with my background I can debug, resolve, and fix complex problems and prevent the kind of regressions that Claude itself often struggles with.
I know how to ask the right engineering prompts, set up proper E2E testing to confirm issues before anything gets pushed, and keep the work grounded in solid practice.
With 15 years of software engineering experience behind me, having Claude and Codex available feels like running my own dev team that I can orchestrate efficiently. That combination of deep experience and AI fluency is what sets me apart from people who are either using these tools without the engineering foundation, or relying on experience alone without leveraging what AI can do.
Skills
Languages & Frameworks
Video Players
DRM & Protocols
TV & STB Platforms
AWS Media
AWS Infrastructure
Tooling
Experience
3SS
Mar 2024 – Mar 2026 · ContractSenior Software Engineer · Vodafone (most recent)
Most recent role: built Vodafone's next generation set top box from the ground up. Also worked across Yettel, Entel, and OneTV, delivering live, catchup, start over, channel switching, on demand, and recordings. Worked closely with Nagra on DRM and content protection integration. Helped the team hit critical launch deadlines, working remotely from the UK.
- Architected DVB/OTT playback switching using Shaka Player with seamless protocol handoff
- Built high performance UI with LightningJS optimised for low end STB hardware
- Implemented Live, StartOver, TimeShift, Catchup, VOD, and recording playback with 7 day rolling buffer
- Created remote development suite using ZeroTier & Raspberry Pi for real time STB access
- Reduced zapping times and improved playback resilience through KPI driven optimisation
- Developed stall detection, manifest manipulation, and custom debug UI for memory diagnostics
- Ported STB app to Samsung Tizen with minimal code changes
NBC PeacockTV
Mar 2022 – Mar 2024 · ContractSenior Software Engineer
Worked across PeacockTV, SkyShowTime, and NowTV. Focused on video start times, rebuffering reduction, and cross platform delivery at scale.
- DASH, HLS, MSE & EME implementation across Web, Xfinity, and Samsung
- KPI monitoring and performance optimisation using Conviva (VST, VSF)
- BrightLine ad integration and mid stream adaptive bitrate capping
- Memory and CPU profiling on low end Samsung and Xfinity Xi3/Xi6 devices
- AAMP player development for Xfinity X1 platform
- CVSDK development in TypeScript with Jest and CI integration
S3Bubble
2014 – 2021 · 7 yearsFounder & CEO · AWS Certified
Founded and scaled a cloud media streaming platform on AWS, distributing millions of video players monthly via API. Built the full product stack end to end, from encoding tools and DRM protected playback to the underlying Amazon infrastructure: large RDS databases, EC2 Auto Scaling groups behind Elastic Load Balancers, bastion hosts inside hardened VPCs for secure access, and the full AWS Media stack. AWS Certified, with hands on experience running production services at scale.
- Built and scaled a media streaming API serving millions of video players monthly across thousands of sites
- Architected resilient AWS infrastructure: RDS (MySQL/Postgres) at scale, EC2 Auto Scaling groups, ELB / ALB load balancers, multi AZ VPC with bastion hosts and IAM hardened security
- ElectronJS encoding app with multi bitrate HLS/DASH, encryption, subtitles, thumbnails, and bulk upload
- CloudFormation & Lambda automated encoding pipeline via MediaConvert
- Studio approved DRM player via SPEKE API with Widevine, PlayReady, FairPlay using BuyDRM and EZDRM
- Production live streaming workflow with MediaLive, MediaPackage, and OBS integration
- Fully automated CloudFormation stack that spun up complete live streaming setups on demand, covering MediaLive channels, MediaPackage endpoints, IAM, networking, and DRM wiring
- AngularJS media streaming application integrated with AWS cloud workflows
Side Projects
End to end streaming platform for studios, broadcasters, and creators. Encoder, dashboard, TV apps, and one player across every screen.
Mobile and desktop terminal app with AI powered voice commands, safety analysis, and remote server management.
Audio management and streaming platform for creators and businesses.
Mobile live streaming application enabling creators to broadcast directly to YouTube.
Cloud based video and audio hosting platform with secure streaming and WordPress integration.
Smart TV remote debugging and development tool. Deploy, inspect, and debug LG WebOS and Samsung Tizen apps from your desktop.
Education
Swansea Metropolitan University
2007 – 2009BA Hons Interactive Digital Media, 2:1
Swansea College, Tycoch
2003 – 2005BTEC National Diploma Music Technology, Distinction, Merit, Merit
John Colet School, Wendover
1994 – 19989 GCSEs (A–C) including English, Maths, Sciences
Contact
Let's build something
amazing.
Cardiff, South Wales. Open to remote & travel.