Senior Principal Software Engineer

Job ID 10103076 Location Santa Monica, California, United States / San Francisco, California, United States / Seattle, Washington, United States Business Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology Date posted Oct. 29, 2024

Apply Now

ENJOY THE MAGIC

Because our employees and cast members are at the heart of everything we do, Disney offers a competitive total rewards package that includes pay, health and savings benefits, time-off programs, educational opportunities and more.

*Benefits and eligibility may vary by business and location

HEALTH INSURANCE & WELLBEING
CHILDCARE OPTIONS
PAID TIME OFF
RETIREMENT PROGRAMS
TUITION ASSISTANCE
WEEKLY PAY

View All

"There are so many opportunities to grow and learn within Disney! There is never a dull moment at work."

Diana, Principal Counsel

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 for Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

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.
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.
Innovation: We develop and execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

User Foundations

The User Foundations team builds critical User Capabilities that are shared across all experiences on the streaming services: Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+. We implement reliable, high-throughput services and pipelines for gathering information about our users,and delivering personalized experiences. We're a fast-paced, dynamic, collaborative and fun team, and are looking for someone who can slot right in and start delivering from day 1.

Job Summary:

We are looking for a Senior Principal Software Engineer who is passionate about developing high performance platforms. To be successful in this role, you need effective communication and collaboration skills, a passion for learning and trying new things, and a strong foundational understanding of programming and computer science.

As a member of our team, you will apply your knowledge and skills to help us deliver scalable, performant, maintainable, and testable software.

Things you’ll be working on:

Identity patterns that can help the teams scale, create proposals, and drive adoption of those patterns
Challenge current architectural choices while collaborating to solve problems in innovative ways
Drive best engineering practices to write well-constructed and easy-to-maintain code, defensive and robust tests.
Lead through metrics - understand application performance and costs and push for better results.
Work with Product Management to help translate business requirements into Technical solutions - drive the delivery of key projects across the various cross functional teams
Lead architecture group to inspire change across the organization as well as partner organizations
Represent Disney streaming in various internal and external conferences, blogs, mentor Senior engineers

What to bring

12+ years of related experience crafting large-scale, highly available Java services utilizing various database and messaging technologies.
Strong programming skills in Java and other object-oriented languages, and a strong grasp of computer science fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, databases, etc.)
Experience using source control systems and CI/CD pipelines.
An ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
Champion cross-team projects.
Coach and mentor other specialists on the team to ensure that all software utilizes Hulu and industry best practices for data persistence and real-time streaming applications.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

Develop software designs and specifications
Develops and writes code to meet design specifications
Test, document and deploy code
Provide technical mentorship, and code quality assurance
Support, maintain and break-fix production products
Work with a team to design solutions to various interesting and challenging problems
Be a champion for engineering excellence
Become and stay an expert in current and emerging technologies and tools

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications

12+ years of software engineering experience
Understanding of message based distributed, scalable, and resilient systems
Desire to work in a start-up, fast-growth, or rapid-change environment
Experience working on diverse teams
Problem-solving skills to identify the root cause and implement the fix.
Solid communication skills – written, and oral
Ability to be flexible, adapting to changing priorities
Fluent in multiple programming languages and an expert in at least one of: JavaScript, Python, Java
Experience transforming requirements into software design, documentation and software.
Ability to coach teammates to become better engineers
Ability to lead technical projects

Experience with:

SpringBoot and related Spring projects
Non-relational database technologies e.g. DynamoDB
Redis and/or MemCache
Apache Kafka and/or Kinesis
Terraform, Docker and Kubernetes
Expert with at least one of: AWS, Azure, GCP
Experience building, testing, and tuning distributed systems

Required Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA is $223.7K - 300K, and for Seattle, WA is $234.4K - 314.3K and for San Francisco, CA is $245.1K - 328.6K. 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.

Apply Now

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 Candidate.Accommodations@Disney.com 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.

Having technical issues? View the FAQs for help.

Hiring Process

Where Does Your Story Begin?

Explore Disney Careers and the Life at Disney blog to learn about all the amazing opportunities waiting to be discovered at The Walt Disney Company.
Be Part of the Story

There are many different brands and businesses to explore. Once you've found the opportunity that is right for you, take the next step by completing your application.
The Next Chapter

Once you've applied, you will receive an email allowing you to access your candidate dashboard. Create your login and make sure to check your dashboard often to see your application progress.

Explore this Location Santa Monica, CA

Basking in sunshine 280 days of the year and located just 20 minutes west of Downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica is a walkable oasis teeming with outdoor adventures, luxury wellness spas and opportunities to kick back under blue skies and awe-inspiring sunsets.