Also called: Video Compression Engineer, Video Encoding Engineer
Writes the math-heavy code that shrinks video files so streams, video calls and YouTube look sharp without using huge amounts of data.
You test a new setting for the AV1 video format on thousands of movie clips to see whether it saves 5 percent of data without ugly blocks. You stare at side-by-side frames, zooming into dark scenes where flaws hide. If it works, it could save a streaming company millions of dollars.
Estimated from streaming and chip company postings.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's in electrical engineering or CS; a master's in signal processing is common.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics.
Growing about average. Small, elite specialty; steady as video traffic grows.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI-based compression is rising, so codec experts who know both classic and AI methods stay in demand.
Classes: AP Calculus, AP Computer Science, Physics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1252.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.