Senior Principal Software Engineer, Programmatic Advertising

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.

Ad Platforms is responsible for Disney’s industry-leading ad technology and products – driving advertising performance, innovation, and value in Disney’s sports, news, and entertainment content, across all media platforms.

We are hiring a Senior Principal Engineer to shape the future of the programmatic side (both SSP and DSP vendors) and real time bidding. As one of the most senior technical leaders in our organization, you will set directions for fleets associated with programmatic, digital asset management, and campaign management. You will roll out architectural standards for programmatic teams and mentor engineers associated with fleets. You will partner with executive leadership across engineering, product and data to align strategies with companywide priorities.

This Architect role will help in designing and code reviewing in Programmatic and biddable areas.  In addition, with fleet related Self-service DCM.

This is an individual contributor role with broad technical scope and organizational influence. In addition to solving high impact technical challenges, you will serve as thought leader and mentor-elevating the work of other senior engineers and helping to build a culture of technical excellence and innovation across the organization.  This is an individual who will be accountable for quality code delivery to production through a gated code review process and also involved early with the product team for understanding requirements.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Influence strategy to address internal or external business objectives

• Leads highly visible multidisciplinary projects or initiatives, providing thought leadership and influences decision making

• Proactively identifies and solves complex and business critical matters that impact the direction of overall business

• Leading discussion with Product/sales organization in gathering requirements and translating into architectural design, focusing on programmatic space and biddable area

• Research on technologies required for fleets that will help engineering to improve their velocity

• Roll out standards for programmatic areas, establish frameworks and tools to accelerate development and promote productivity

• Represents Disney Ad Platform programmatic integration efforts in strategic forum, internal councils and external technical communities (e.g., conferences, publications, industry panels)

Basic Qualifications:

• 12 years of experience in software engineering, architecture or relevant field

• Proficiency in Java frameworks (e.g., Spring Boot) and RESTful API design.

• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS) and CI/CD pipelines

• Solid understanding of databases (SQL and NoSQL) and data modeling techniques.

• Solid knowledge in real time data streaming technologies such as Amazon Kinesis.

• Solid knowledge of designing backend systems for low latency with high transactions scalability.

• Solid knowledge in programmatic advertising business with integration with providers such as Magnite(SSP) and experience working with DSP (DV360)

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a focus on innovative solutions.

• Hands on technical skills to write POC implementation for mentoring engineering teams

     

Preferred Qualifications:

• Leading in designing microservices architecture that meets business requirements and enhances system scalability and reliability.

• Collaborate with development teams to define technical standards and best practices for Java development and microservices.

• Analyze and improve existing systems, identifying areas for optimization and refactoring.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to development teams, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

• Evaluate and select appropriate technologies and tools to support microservices development and deployment.

• Develop and maintain architectural documentation, including design patterns, deployment strategies, and API specifications.

• Ensure compliance with security, performance, and scalability best practices.

• Participate in code reviews, architecture reviews, and design discussions to ensure quality and adherence to best practices.

• Analyze and improve existing systems, identifying areas for optimization and refactoring.

• Strong knowledge of UML and object modelling experience.

• Experience in using React and Nodejs technologies

• Deep understanding of programmatic Ad Platform business

Required Education:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Computer Information Systems, Electrical Engineering, or relevant field

The hiring range for this position in Glendale, California is $223,700 to $300,000 per year, and Santa Monica, California is $223,700 to $300,000 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.