Lead Software Engineer

Job ID 10126180 Location New York, New York, United States Business Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology Date posted Sep. 05, 2025

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Job Summary:

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

Technology is at the heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, data scientists, and more – all working to build and advance the technological backbone for Disney’s media business globally.

The team marries technology with creativity to build world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and scalability for our businesses. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with every part of The Walt Disney Company’s media portfolio to advance the technological foundation and consumer media touch points serving millions of people around the world.

Here are a few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

Building the future of Disney’s media: Our Technologists are designing and building the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.

Reach, Scale & Impact: More than ever, Disney’s technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans' connections with the company’s brands and stories. Disney+. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and events they carry – matter to millions of people globally.

Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and distinctive technical problems.

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology is looking for a Technical Lead Software Engineer to join the Playback Services team within the Media Engineering organization. The Playback Services team’s mission is to build highly available, high throughput services that are essential to delivering high quality content to our subscribers. The team is 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 meaningful role in the core functionality of our streaming products, then our team is for you.

As a Tech Lead on the PlayIO team, you'll be directly influencing the performance, reliability, and scalability of our core applications. You'll work closely with a talented team of software engineers, acting as a technical anchor and mentor. Your days will involve guiding critical architectural decisions, diving deep into complex code reviews, and troubleshooting production issues to ensure seamless operation. You'll also play a pivotal role in shaping our technical roadmap, championing best practices in areas like system resilience, and developer efficiency.

You'll make a significant impact on the organization by contributing to the development of new features, and ensuring our services remain highly available for our users. By optimizing system performance, and nurturing a culture of excellence within your team, you'll directly contribute to an enhanced user experience on our streaming applications. This role is crucial for our continued growth, empowering us to confidently scale our offerings, and innovate rapidly.

Responsibilities:

Work with a team of engineers building software in a collaborative development process
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:

7+ years related experience designing backend architectures and delivering backend applications in a production environment
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience
Experience building RESTful Services in Scala
Understanding of async programming models (events, callbacks, async/await) and thread + concurrency
Understanding of source control concepts and exposure to Git
Experience with build and deployment technologies such as Jenkins, Spinnaker, and Docker
Strong grasp of data structures, algorithms, and common design patterns.
Demonstrated knowledge in building and operating large-scale high availability backend services
Knowledge of caching technologies
Proficiency in Cloud Platforms and DevOps Practices
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Self-learner, independent, excellent problem-solving skills

Preferred Qualifications:

Demonstrated knowledge in building and operating large-scale high availability backend services in a JVM language
Functional Programming in Scala
Experience building RESTful Services in Scala
Expertise in Performance Optimization and Scalability
Demonstrated ability to analyze complex technical challenges, propose well-reasoned solutions, and articulate design choices clearly.
Experience with: AWS (EKS, S3, ElastiCache, Kinesis, OpenSearch), Scala, Java, Python, Terraform. Experience with observability tooling (ex. DataDog).

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA is $152,200 to $204,100 per year, and in New York, NY is $159,500 to $213,900 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.

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About Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology:

At Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology, we’re blending imagination and innovation to reimagine the ways people experience and engage with the world’s most beloved stories and products. Our work is wide-ranging and deeply sophisticated. We create amazing experiences, transform the future of media, and build products and platforms that enable the connection between people everywhere and the stories and sports they love.

Disney’s ability to marry world-class technology with one-of-a-kind creativity makes us unique. It is at the heart of our past, present, and future. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers.

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 and ESPN Product & 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, visit the Disney candidate disability accommodations FAQs. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.

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