Senior Rust Developer

Position Overview

• Location Type: Remote
• Job Type: Long-term contract
• Salary: Not specified
• Start Date: June 2025 to August 2025

Nexus Studios is a global creative studio specializing in animation, artful live-action, and immersive experiences. We work with award-winning directors and leading cultural brands, pushing the boundaries of entertainment with a focus on innovation, XR, and crafted storytelling.

We are seeking a Senior Rust Developer to architect and build a high-performance real-time streaming platform for a new XR sports and entertainment engagement product. This role involves developing the core backend infrastructure for live, fan-facing experiences requiring demanding real-time performance. You will be responsible for building scalable streaming services, data synchronization systems, and APIs to support frontend XR applications developed with Kotlin. This is a live, fan-facing product focused on technical infrastructure for real-time streaming performance, time-critical data synchronization across multiple clients, and seamless integration with external data APIs. You will collaborate with a technical lead and technology director to deliver a robust, performant backend from MVP through launch and live operations.

Requirements

What You'll Do:

• Design and implement the core Rust-based streaming architecture for high-performance async services.
• Build real-time data streaming pipelines using gRPC and HTTP/2.0 for low-latency fan engagement features on XR devices.
• Develop comprehensive serialization/deserialization systems for efficient data exchange with XR clients.
• Implement time synchronization protocols to ensure consistent live experiences across distributed clients.
• Create a scalable microservices architecture capable of handling peak event traffic loads.
• Integrate with external data APIs and partner systems, managing real-time data ingestion and processing.
• Collaborate with frontend XR teams to define efficient data and streaming contracts.
• Support the development team with tooling, documentation, and code review processes.

What You Will Bring:

• 8+ years of systems engineering experience, with at least 2 years in Senior or Lead positions involving distributed systems.
• Expert-level Rust development experience, including a deep understanding of async/await, ownership models, and zero-copy performance optimization.
• Proven experience with Rust web frameworks such as Axum, Tokio, or Warp for high-throughput async services.
• Strong background in gRPC service development, Protocol Buffers, and streaming RPC patterns.
• Experience building high-performance data streaming systems with backpressure handling and flow control.
• A track record of designing and implementing scalable microservices architectures that handle variable load patterns.
• Familiarity with observability tools and operational monitoring in Rust applications.
• Enthusiasm for building systems for live, high-emotion moments and performing under pressure.

Preferred Experience:

• AWS experience with ECS/Fargate, Lambda, and core networking services.
• Understanding of XR/VR data requirements and low-latency streaming constraints.
• Background in live event streaming systems or time-critical data processing.
• Experience with Rust gRPC implementations (tonic, grpcio) and protobuf code generation.
• Collaborative experience with external platform teams or in co-development environments.
• A passion for live storytelling and the potential of immersive platforms for fandom.

Company Information

Nexus Studios is a global creative studio working with award-winning directors across animation, artful live-action and immersive to redefine the boundaries of entertainment. Our work has received accolades from BAFTA, Emmy, Grammy, Academy Awards to name a few. We work with the world’s leading cultural brands and have a deep rooted history in innovation, XR and crafted storytelling.

Role Focus & Benefits

This is a Nexus-led role focused on backend systems architecture. You will work within a highly collaborative, partner-facing development environment, helping to define not only what we build but also how we architect it. This includes shaping our streaming infrastructure, data synchronization strategies, and the evolution of our technology.