Skip to main content

Lead Software Engineer

Apply Now Apply Later Job ID 10100844 Location Santa Monica, California, United States / Bristol, Connecticut, United States / San Francisco, California, United States / New York, New York, United States / Seattle, Washington, United States Business Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology Date posted Sep. 30, 2024

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.

The Product & Data Engineering team is responsible for end to end development for Disney’s world-class consumer-facing products, including streaming platforms Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, and digital products & experiences across ESPN, Marvel, Disney Studios, NatGeo, and ABC News. The team drives innovation at scale for millions of consumers around the world across Apple, Android, Smart TVs, game consoles, and the web, with our platforms powering core experiences like personalization, search, messaging and data.

About The Big Data Infrastructure team

The Big Data Infrastructure team manages big data services such as Hadoop, Spark, Flink, Presto, Hive, etc. Our services are distributed across the data center and Cloud, supporting a large scale of data amount and thousands of physical resources. We focus on the virtualization of big data environments, cost efficiency, resiliency, and performance.  

The right person for this role should have proven experience with working in mission-critical infrastructure and enjoy building and maintaining large-scale data systems with the challenge of varied requirements and large storage capabilities. If you are someone who enjoys building large-scale big data infrastructure, then this is a great role for you!

What You'll Do

  • Develop, scale, and improve in-house/cloud Kubernetes and Hadoop-related systems (e.g. Yarn, Mesos, Kubernetes, EKS, EMR, etc)

  • Investigate new big data technology, and apply it to the Disney Streaming production environment.

  • Build next-gen big data infrastructure for batch and streaming data applications, and continuously improve performance, scalability, and availability

  • Handle architectural and design considerations such as performance, scalability, reusability, and flexibility issues.

  • Advocate engineering best practices, including the use of design patterns, code review, and automated unit/functional testing.

  • Work together with other engineering teams to influence them on big data system design and optimization.

  • Define and lead the adoption of best practices and processes. Collaborate with senior internal team members and external stakeholders to gather requirements and drive implementation

  • Collaborate efficiently with Product Managers and other developers to build datastores as a service.

  • Collaborate with senior internal team members and external stakeholders to gather requirements and drive implementation.

Basic Qualifications

  • Experience in building in-house/cloud big data environment

  • At least 7 years of professional programming and design experience

  • Experience with containerized service or Bigdata-related components (e.g. Yarn, K8s, Mesos, EKS, Openshift, HDFS, HBase, Yarn, Hive, Spark, Flink, Presto, Impala, Terraform, EKS, Spinnaker, IAM, EMR, etc)

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience in building architecture of big data environments based on container technologies

  • Experience in developing and optimizing K8s-related components       

  • Experience in developing and optimizing Hadoop-related components (e.g. HDFS, HBase, Yarn, Hive, Spark, Flink, Presto, Impala)

  • Demonstrated ability with cloud infrastructure technologies, including Terraform, K8S, Spinnaker, IAM, ELB, and etc

  • Experience in managing a big data cluster with over 1000 nodes.

Required Education

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering or comparable field of study 


The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, California is $149,300 to $200,200 per year, in Bristol, Connecticut is $149,300 to $200,200 per year, in Seattle, Washington is $156,300 to $209,600 per year. in New York City, NY is $156,300 to $209,600 per year, and in San Francisco, California is $163,500 to $219,200 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.

Apply Now Apply Later

Watch Our Jobs

Sign up to receive new job alerts and company information based on your preferences.

For Disney Job Alerts to work, JavaScript must be enabled in your browser.