Challenges of media scale, latency, and quality

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What’s it like to work as a software engineer inside one of the world’s biggest streaming companies?

In this special episode recorded at Netflix’s headquarters in Los Gatos, I sit down with Elizabeth Stone, Netflix’s Chief Technology Officer. Before becoming CTO, Elizabeth led data and insights at Netflix and was VP of Science at Lyft. She brings a rare mix of technical depth, product thinking, and people leadership.

We discuss what it means to be “unusually responsible” at Netflix, how engineers make decisions without layers of approval, and how the company balances autonomy with guardrails for high-stakes projects like Netflix Live. Elizabeth shares how teams self-reflect and learn from outages and failures, why Netflix doesn’t do formal performance reviews, and what new grads bring to a company known for hiring experienced engineers.

This episode offers a rare inside look at how Netflix engineers build, learn, and lead at a global scale.

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(01:44) The scale of Netflix 

(03:31) Production software stack

(05:20) Engineering challenges in production

(06:38) How the Open Connect delivery network works

(08:30) From pitch to play 

(11:31) How Netflix enables engineers to make decisions 

(13:26) Building Netflix Live for global sports

(16:25) Learnings from Paul vs. Tyson for NFL Live

(17:47) Inside the control room 

(20:35) What being unusually responsible looks like

(24:15) Balancing team autonomy with guardrails for Live

(30:55) The high talent bar and introduction of levels at Netflix

(36:01) The Keeper Test  

(41:27) Why engineers leave or stay 

(44:27) How AI tools are used at Netflix

(47:54) AI’s highest-impact use cases

(50:20) What new grads add and why senior talent still matters

(53:25) Open source at Netflix 

(57:07) Elizabeth’s parting advice for new engineers to succeed at Netflix 

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The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:

• The end of the senior-only level at Netflix

• Netflix revamps its compensation philosophy

• Live streaming at world-record scale with Ashutosh Agrawal

• Shipping to production

• What is good software architecture?

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Production and marketing by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://penname.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@pragmaticengineer.com.