Senior Backend Rust Engineer - TikTok-Style Video Infrastructure

Company Description

OleOle

OleOle is building a global football super app combining social networking, messaging, live scores, short-form video, gambling, commerce, payments, translation, and mini programs into a single ecosystem focused entirely on football.

The vision is to create the first true “WeChat for football” — a platform where fans, clubs, brands, leagues, sportsbooks, creators, and merchants can communicate, transact, and engage directly inside one global environment.

Unlike traditional social media platforms, OleOle is built specifically for sports fans and designed around communication, real-time engagement, commerce, and community.

The platform combines elements of:

• Twitter/X style social conversation
• TikTok-style short-form video
• WhatsApp-style messaging
• live score platforms
• programmable commerce
• mini program ecosystems similar to WeChat

All integrated into a single football-first platform.

Core Platform Vision

OleOle is designed around several key ideas:

Communication First

Fans can communicate directly with:

• clubs
• brands
• sportsbooks
• creators
• media companies
• other fans

through follows, messaging, sharing, comments, and real-time translated conversations.

Mini Program Ecosystem

OleOle is building a mini program platform that allows brands and partners to launch experiences directly inside the platform without requiring fans to download separate applications.

Initial mini program categories include:

• Games
• News
• Merchandise
• Ticket Sales
• VIP Hospitality
• Gambling

Fans can:

• follow or unfollow mini programs
• communicate directly with brands
• share mini programs with friends
• receive translated content automatically

Brands can communicate directly with followers within platform communication limits designed to prevent spam and preserve user experience.

Real-Time Translation

A core component of the platform is AI-driven real-time translation across conversations, content, video, messaging, and mini programs.

The goal is to remove language barriers between global football fans and allow mini programs to operate across dozens of languages automatically.

This creates a global communication layer connecting fans, clubs, brands, and creators worldwide.

Wallet + Payments Infrastructure

OleOle includes an integrated Wallet ID and payment infrastructure powering:

• commerce
• rewards
• gambling
• digital collectibles
• mini program transactions
• creator payouts

The platform is designed around programmable commerce and frictionless fan engagement.

Technology Stack

OleOle is being built as a native Rust platform focused on:

• scalability
• performance
• real-time communication
• low-latency systems
• global infrastructure
• payments
• social engagement
• video delivery

The company is also building:

• AI translation systems
• football history AI infrastructure
• developer platforms
• mini program tooling
• programmable payment rails

The Long-Term Vision

OleOle’s long-term vision is to become the global operating system for football fans:

• social networking
• communication
• commerce
• gaming
• gambling
• content
• ticketing
• rewards
• programmable fan experiences

all inside one interconnected ecosystem.

OleOle – Where Fans Kick Off

Job Description

Senior Rust Engineer – Short-Form Video Feed Infrastructure

OleOle is building a global football super app combining social networking, messaging, live scores, short-form video, gambling, commerce, payments, translation, and mini programs into a single platform focused entirely on football fans worldwide.

We are looking for a senior Rust engineer to help architect and build the short-form video infrastructure powering the platform.

This role is focused specifically on:

• TikTok-style video feeds
• video ingestion pipelines
• transcoding systems
• media delivery infrastructure
• playback optimization
• recommendation and engagement systems
• upload systems
• scalable video APIs
• CDN and streaming optimization
• real-time media infrastructure

This is not a generic backend role.

The platform combines elements of:

• TikTok
• Instagram Reels
• YouTube Shorts
• live football content
• social engagement
• real-time translated communication

inside a football-focused ecosystem.

Core Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable short-form video infrastructure
• Architect video ingestion and transcoding pipelines
• Optimize playback performance across mobile and web
• Design scalable media delivery systems
• Build APIs supporting high-volume video engagement
• Help architect recommendation and engagement systems
• Work on low-latency media infrastructure
• Collaborate with frontend, mobile, AI, and platform engineers
• Help optimize infrastructure for global fan engagement at scale

Technical Environment

OleOle is being built primarily in Rust.

Rust is a critical requirement for this role due to:

• performance
• concurrency
• media pipeline efficiency
• scalability
• low-latency infrastructure
• high-volume content delivery requirements

The platform architecture is expected to include:

• Rust backend services
• distributed media infrastructure
• scalable upload pipelines
• transcoding systems
• real-time streaming infrastructure
• CDN optimization
• event-driven systems
• recommendation infrastructure
• AI translation systems
• high-scale engagement systems

What We’re Building

OleOle’s vision is to become the global operating system for football fans.

The platform combines:

• social networking
• messaging
• short-form video
• live scores
• gambling
• commerce
• mini programs
• AI translation
• football history AI

inside one interconnected ecosystem.

A major focus of the platform is real-time fan engagement through video, social interaction, and globally translated content.

Fans should be able to:

• upload and share football content instantly
• consume short-form football video globally
• interact socially around matches and clubs
• receive translated video content and engagement
• participate in football conversations in real time

Ideal Backgrounds

This role may be a strong fit for engineers with experience related to:

• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitch
• Instagram Reels
• video streaming platforms
• media infrastructure
• large-scale content delivery systems
• real-time streaming systems

Compensation

Compensation is currently deferred until funding closes. Equity and token participation may be available for the right candidate.

OleOle – Where Fans Kick Off

Qualifications

Qualifications – Senior Rust Engineer – Short-Form Video Feed Infrastructure

Required Technical Experience

• Strong Rust backend engineering experience
• Experience designing scalable distributed systems
• Experience building high-scale APIs
• Experience with media or video infrastructure
• Experience working with real-time systems
• Strong understanding of concurrency and low-latency infrastructure
• Experience building scalable content delivery systems
• Experience optimizing backend performance for high-volume traffic
• Strong understanding of scalable media pipelines

Preferred Experience

Experience with one or more of the following is highly preferred:

• Video ingestion pipelines
• Video transcoding systems
• Streaming infrastructure
• CDN optimization
• Short-form video feed systems
• Recommendation or engagement systems
• Real-time media delivery
• Upload and processing pipelines
• Distributed event systems
• Large-scale consumer platforms
• High-concurrency backend systems

Ideal Backgrounds

This role may be a strong fit for engineers with experience related to:

• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitch
• Instagram Reels
• media delivery infrastructure
• streaming platforms
• scalable video systems
• real-time content delivery systems

Additional Preferred Skills

• Experience with FFmpeg or media processing pipelines
• Experience with WebRTC or streaming technologies
• Experience with scalable caching systems
• Experience with distributed databases
• Experience with pub/sub infrastructure
• Experience with cloud-native infrastructure
• Experience building globally distributed systems
• Experience with recommendation systems or engagement ranking
• Experience with AI-assisted moderation or translation systems
• Experience working in startup environments
• Interest in sports, football, or fan engagement products

Soft Skills

• Strong product thinking
• Ability to work independently in an early-stage startup environment
• Comfortable helping shape architecture from the ground up
• Comfortable operating with evolving product requirements
• Strong communication and collaboration skills
• Interest in ambitious long-term platform design

Additional Information

Solutions not problems .

• Creative problem solver who can courageously propose and support new ideas to our organization. Not interested in best practices, lets build something better!
• Ability to adapt. An ideal candidate will welcome the opportunity to solve a broad range of problems using a wide array of technologies.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, shifting priorities and general growing pains of an early-stage technology company
• An exceptional entrepreneurial judgment that fosters independence over micro-management
• Understanding of football and international sports a huge plus

Ole Ole is located in beautiful Austin Texas, however, this role requires some travel we are privately held and rapidly growing!