Lead Software Engineer - Roku

Job ID 10123233 Location New York, New York, United States / Santa Monica, California, United States / Glendale, California, United States / San Francisco, California, United States / Seattle, Washington, United States / Morrisville, North Carolina, United States Business Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology Date posted Jun. 10, 2025

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Job Summary:

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.

Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms. This includes product engineering, media engineering, quality assurance, engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

Media Engineering builds the software and systems that prepare media content and metadata for the Disney Streaming platform - providing the best possible playback experience to our viewers.

Media Engineering handles audio, video, and metadata content from ingest through publish - for normalization, processing, and packaging - supporting operator tools and automation for a scalable workflow. We build logic across players and back-end services to measure, control, and optimize playback across our stack.

Our team is looking for hardworking team players to join us in Media Engineering, who will thrive upon the legacy of Disney brands like Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, and ABC, embrace unconventional thinking, and who are passionate about contributing to The Walt Disney Company’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) experience through strategic hard work and determination.

Job Summary:

The Video Playback Engineering team mission is to design video streaming playback solutions in collaboration with encoding, packaging, and delivery teams to optimize the Disney Streaming technology stack for the best streaming experience possible on all devices.

Our team is seeking someone who can join the team as a senior software engineer for our Roku playback library. We design, develop and maintain a media playback package which can span all the Disney direct-to-consumer brands like Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu. Your focus will be on collaborating with media playback teams on other platforms to ensure a consistent software architecture which delivers a best in class streaming experience for our viewers while providing a foundation for media playback innovation at Disney.

Responsibilities

Design and implement solutions for new features which integrate with various Disney media services/back-ends.
Collaboration and API design with peer services and front-end teams.
Research and development for media playback experiences, integration, and testing.
Participation in project planning and team operations.

Basic Qualifications:

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study.
Minimum of 7 years experience of related work experience.
Strong verbal/written communication and data presentation skills.
2 Years experience building apps for Roku using Brightscript.
Proven track record at a senior and lead software engineering level.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience working directly with Video Playback technologies (MSE/EME, HLS, MPEG-DASH, Transport Stream, CMAF).

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA and Glendale, CA is $152,200 to $204,100 per year, in Seattle, WA and New York, NY is $159,500 to $213,900 per year, and in San Francisco, CA is $166,800 to $223,600 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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