Lead Software Engineer - Ad Platforms

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.

Within DE&E Technology, the Ad Platforms team is responsible for creating and scaling innovative global advertising solutions by building mission-critical tools and workflows to support addressable & linear ad sales, traffic, marketing and parts of broadcast operations.  Being part of the DE&E Technology team is a once-in-a-career opportunity to be a part of what’s next.

This role is a part of the Software Engineering team within the DE&E Ad Platforms organization. We strive to be a diverse team, passionate about great technology applied creatively to solve complex business problems.  We are a motivated team that is committed to lifelong learning and improving, both in and out of the office. We strive to be flexible and adaptable to change both in how we execute projects and in the technologies we use to deliver our solutions. We care about the details because every pixel, every line of code, and every user interaction with our products determines whether we are delivering on our commitment to producing the very best products possible.  You’ll be joining a talented team that works interdependently toward aggressive goals to deliver technically sound solutions.  We work to ensure that we share both accountability and credit as a team. We often include our users as part of our team and we work to connect with them on a human level, understanding their world, so we can deliver software that they love to use.

As a Lead Software Engineer, you will use your deep Java, scripting, DevOps, and data persistence skills to architect, design, write and test code that delivers new features for our application portfolio. You will be an important part of a motivated team where we’ll be looking for you to lead the team to drive application architecture, code quality, and make sure we are building the right things for our users. We want someone that has grown up through the web software development ranks - possessing 7 or more years’ experience in designing and architecting highly scalable, secure, performant, and usable web applications using Java/Java EE. The ideal candidate would possess extensive skills in server side technology (Java, Spring, RESTful Web Services), while having expertise with orchestration and containerization platforms (Docker and Kubernetes), coupled with hands on persistence and data streaming technology experience (MySQL, Oracle, Cassandra, Redis, Kafka).

While The Walt Disney Company is a large company, ideally, we’d like if you have some previous experience in a U.S. startup environment and be comfortable performing multiple roles. We strive to get things done quickly, with high quality, and we are committed to the agile methodology. Our work is guided by lean principles (looking at value and looking for waste; not doing anything ‘for the sake of doing it’).

We’re looking for a passionate, impactful, technical leader who wants to come here to do their very best work and make their mark, add their chapter to the long and storied history of The Walt Disney Company. Someone who holds themselves and their teammates accountable in a professional, collaborative manner. A collaborative technologist who seeks to bring the best out in themselves and those around them. Someone who can provide a fresh perspective and innovative insight to our initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver software projects with high quality on time. Provide domain expertise and innovative solutions to complex business problems

• Collaborate with leads and influence software architectures which are robust, scalable, fault-tolerant, secured and cloud-native

• Possess AWS managed service solution design and implementation experience

• Reason logically and creatively, identifying problems, drawing valid conclusions from the data available, and develop effective solutions while applying creative thinking in the design and development of high performing web applications

• Collaborate with leads to keep the team’s technology radar and architecture principles aligned to the industry and needs of our users. Stay up-to-date on the latest software development technologies and trends

• Lead code reviews and ensure that all code meets quality standards

• Provide leadership and direction to junior and senior engineers

• Deliver multiple projects utilizing an Agile methodology

• Take a high ownership, self-sufficient, hands-on position on the team to lead and drive quality, maintain application stability

• Write complex programs, analyze code changes and suggest improvements

• Check-in valuable, clean and well-documented code on a daily basis that adds new features and capabilities

• Create reference implementations for the purpose of mentoring and leading more junior staff (when required)

• Help define engineering standards and provide technical mentorship to the team

• Investigate and resolve any production issues from end user (UI) to persistence layer and work to prevent them

• Work with product managers and managers to ensure that all project deliverables are on time and high quality

• Work collaboratively with cross-functional teams to ensure that software solutions align with business goals

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Basic Qualifications

• Hold a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, Engineering, or another technical field

• Have 7+ years of experience in web application development or software engineering in a large enterprise environment using Java, including familiarity with modern frameworks and platforms (e.g., Spring, Docker, Kubernetes)

• Be able to demonstrate significant experience working with relational databases, SQL and newer NoSQL data stores as well as event streaming platforms

• Have a strong interest in open source technology

• Possess good communication skills and enjoy mentoring and helping others to succeed as a team

• Care about your craft and have opinions about the “right” way to do things with technology

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related technical discipline is highly desirable

• Previous work experience in advertising or creative, design workflow applications

• Experience working with vendor teams to deliver high quality results

• Knowledge of performance testing and application profiling

• Strong curiosity about how Disney delivers the Magic and a desire to be a part of it

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA or New York, NY is between $149,300 – 200,200, Los Angeles, CA is between $156,300 – $209,600 year, in San Francisco is between $163,500 – $219,200. 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.