Lead Software Engineer

Job ID: 10114210

Location: New York, New York, United States

Business: Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

Date posted: March 07, 2025

Job Summary:

Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we’re reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world’s most beloved stories while also transforming Disney’s media business for the future. Whether that’s evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to maximize flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney’s unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

A few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

1. Building the future of Disney’s media business: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power Disney’s media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
2. Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day – from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.
3. Innovation: We develop and execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Media Engineering

Media Engineering is an innovative organization that is focused on providing the best possible video playback experience, art, and metadata to customers around the world, powered by exceptional technology. This strategic work requires streamlining and repurposing technology across different business and distribution channels – including streaming, linear, and theatrical – so that technology can ebb and flow across the needs of the business.

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology is looking for a Lead Software Engineer to join the Playback Services team within the Media Engineering organization! Our mission is to build highly available, high throughput services that are crucial to delivering high quality content to our subscribers. We are responsible for the backend of media playback, facilitating media selection, device customization, and antipiracy technologies. If you enjoy streaming media, are interested in live sports and entertainment, or just want to join a fast-growing team that plays a significant role in the core functionality of our streaming products, then this role is for you!

Responsibilities:

• Work with a team of engineers building software in a collaborative development process.
• Work cross-team to build consensus on approach for delivering projects.
• Interface with business stakeholders to understand and refine requirements.
• Eliminate ambiguity in projects and communicate direction to engineers to help team members work in parallel.
• Build high-performance, stable, scalable systems to be deployed in an enterprise setting.
• Lead high-level architecture discussions and planning sessions.
• Participate in the code review process by providing feedback on pull requests.
• Participate in the on-call rotation, supporting systems and services during production incidents.
• Author and provide feedback on technical proposals and root cause analyses.
• Provide mentoring and advice for other engineers.
• Establish engineering best practices and standards within the team to drive quality and excellence.
• Contribute to the DSS technical community through presentations, tech talks, and other knowledge-sharing efforts.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience.
• Minimum of 7 years related experience crafting backend architectures and delivering backend applications in a production environment. Validated knowledge of operating large-scale high-availability backend services and JVM services.
• Expertise in functional programming patterns and experience building RESTful services (Scala APIs).
• Understanding of async programming models (events, callbacks, promises, async/await) and threading/concurrency.
• Strong grasp of computer science fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, databases, etc.) and strong understanding of design patterns and principles.
• Experience operating within a Public Cloud Provider (e.g., AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Knowledge of AGILE/Scrum practices.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Self-learner, independent, excellent problem-solving skills.
• Understanding of source control concepts and systems, CI/CD pipelines and exposure to Git.
• Experience with build and deployment technologies such as Jenkins and Docker. Experience with messaging technologies (e.g., Kafka, Kinesis, SQS, etc.).
• Experience with observability tools for metrics, logging, and monitoring (e.g., Datadog, Splunk, Grafana).
• Knowledge of caching technologies.

Compensation:

The hiring range for this position in San Francisco, CA is $163,426 to $219,230 per year; in Seattle, WA and New York is $156,292 to $209,660 per year; and in Santa Monica, CA is $149,240 to $200,200 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

About Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology:

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology (DE&E Technology) provides the technological backbone and product development for Disney’s two media business units, while helping to keep the company at the vanguard of innovation – enabling the Company to continuously leverage technology to enhance storytelling and creativity, while delivering scalability, flexibility, and efficiency for its businesses.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise that includes three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney’s stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

This position is with Disney Streaming Technology LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology.

Disney Streaming Technology LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military or veteran status, medical condition, genetic information or disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

Disability Accommodation For Employment Applications

The Walt Disney Company and its Affiliated Companies are Equal Employment Opportunity employers and welcome all job seekers including individuals with disabilities and veterans with disabilities. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or apply for a position, email with your request. This email address is not for general employment inquiries or correspondence. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.