We are seeking a Senior Watermarking Engineer to help design, implement and improve the core technologies behind STARDUSTmark, Castlabs' forensic watermarking solution. Working closely with our research and engineering teams, you will contribute to watermark embedding, extraction, robustness testing, and integration into production workflows.

About Us:

At Castlabs, we are redefining the landscape of video streaming and cloud-based solutions. We are dedicated to eliminating technical complexities in content security and delivery, empowering our clients to provide seamless, high-quality entertainment experiences across film, television, and audio platforms. STARDUSTmark is our forensic watermarking product for tracing leaks and identifying their source — even from a single frame or image.

Your Mission Involves:

• Design and improve watermark embedding and extraction algorithms for image and video content.

• Develop techniques to improve robustness against compression, transcoding, scaling, screen capture, and other real-world transformations.

• Evaluate and optimise perceptual quality using objective and subjective quality metrics.

• Implement and maintain watermarking components in C/C++ and Python.

• Contribute to the selection and implementation of error-correction techniques where appropriate.

• Build testing and benchmarking frameworks to measure robustness and detection performance.

• Integrate watermarking technology into media processing workflows based on FFmpeg, cloud services, and containerised environments.

• Explore and prototype new approaches from academia and industry, including AI-assisted methods where beneficial.

• Collaborate with product, research, and engineering teams to bring new capabilities into production.

Your Profile:

• Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Signal Processing, Mathematics, or a related field.

• Strong software development skills in C/C++ and Python.

• Experience in image processing, video processing, signal processing, computer vision, media technologies, or a related domain.

• Understanding of modern video codecs such as H.264, H.265/HEVC, AV1, or similar technologies.

• Experience designing, evaluating, or optimising algorithms under real-world constraints.

• Ability to read and apply technical papers and research publications.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

• 5+ years of relevant professional experience.

Nice to Have

• Experience with watermarking, steganography, or content protection technologies.

• Knowledge of error-correcting codes such as BCH, Reed-Solomon, Reed-Muller, Polar, or LDPC.

• Familiarity with perceptual models and human visual system concepts.

• Experience with FFmpeg, GStreamer, or media processing pipelines.

• Knowledge of machine learning or computer vision techniques.

• Experience in media security, anti-piracy, or forensic analysis.

• GPU programming (CUDA/OpenCL) experience.

The Perks:

• A remote-first culture that is as open-hearted and supportive as it is dynamic and empowering.

• The freedom to grow within a structure inspired by Holacracy, without the constraints of rigid hierarchies.

• Dedicated research time and budget for academic collaboration and conference attendance (IEEE, ICASSP, ACM MM).

• We encourage and support publishing novel contributions — IP agreement allows academic output where appropriate.

• Flexibility that respects your lifestyle, blending work hours with your personal rhythm.

• Meaningful rewards that recognise your impact on our success.

• Annual events to celebrate our shared journey, including our summer party somewhere in Europe.

• Virtual stock options – be part of our success story.

Join us at Castlabs and dive into a vibrant, international melting pot of innovation. And if you want to know more about what comes ahead, then get familiar with our hiring process.

Qualified candidates are considered without regard to age, race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, nationality, sex, or veteran status.
CASTLABS DOES NOT ACCEPT UNSOLICITED RESUMES OR CVS FROM RECRUITMENT AGENCIES. THE SUBMISSION OF AN UNSOLICITED RESUME DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER, ACCEPTANCE, OR THE FORMATION OF A BROKERAGE OR AGENCY AGREEMENT UNDER GERMAN LAW. CASTLABS WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY FEES, COMMISSIONS, OR OTHER COMPENSATION RELATED TO SUCH SUBMISSIONS UNLESS A WRITTEN RECRUITMENT AGREEMENT, SIGNED BY CASTLABS, IS IN EFFECT PRIOR TO THE SUBMISSION OF THE CANDIDATE.