Principal Data Engineer

At Disney, we’re storytellers. We make the impossible, possible. The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) is a world-class entertainment and technological leader. Walt’s passion was to continuously envision new ways to move audiences around the world—a passion that remains our touchstone in an enterprise that stretches from theme parks, resorts and a cruise line to sports, news, movies and a variety of other businesses. Uniting each endeavor is a commitment to creating and delivering unforgettable experiences — and we’re constantly looking for new ways to enhance these exciting experiences.

At Disney Experiences Technology, we design and deliver more than 400 digital and physical products that bring Disney stories to life in unexpected ways. From theme parks and resorts to cruise ships and beyond, our global team of technologists, designers, and innovators creates seamless, immersive experiences that delight millions of Guests and Cast Members around the world.  

 The Disney Signature Experiences and Data team delivers innovative technology solutions across Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club, and our global tour businesses. We support Guest and Crew experiences at sea, enable commercial growth through digital platforms, and lead the segment’s data strategy. With a strong focus on reliability, scalability, and strategic expansion, we build systems that support immersive experiences and unlock new opportunities for growth. 

 Data Platform – This role is on the Data Platform team, which builds and manages the data architecture, governance, and engineering capabilities that power insights and decision-making across Disney Experiences. We are looking for a Principal Solution Architect on the Reference Architecture team to lead the design vision of data products and solutions. You will lead all aspects of assigned data initiatives working with multiple engineering and product teams. 

What You Will Do: 

 Define and/or influence the design, development, and roadmap of highly scalable software systems and applications 

• Create, maintain, and evangelize data architecture standards, patterns, and best practices to ensure alignment with established principles and technologies 

• Architect end-to-end data pipelines from ingestion through consumption layers that support business requirements and analytical needs 

• Facilitate work, intake discussions to ensure solutions are well-architected to meet standards and requirements (e.g., SLA, resiliency, security, and privacy requirements) 

• Provide architectural input for the scope, estimation, prioritization, and planning of highly sophisticated scalable projects and their budget allocations 

• Create and maintain clear communication, documents, and diagrams that define, guide, and influence engineering and product teams 

• Lead projects that may be used in commercial and end-user applications, focusing on software and tools supporting infrastructure and technology platforms 

• Continuously monitor and evaluate emerging technologies within your area of expertise to drive informed decision-making and recommendations 

• Foster and maintain productive engagement with executive leadership and partners to ensure solutions are right-sized and strategically aligned to the overall data strategy and architecture principles 

Required Qualifications & Skills: 

• 10+ years of experience with the delivery of data solutions 

• Expertise in current programming languages and technologies, with strong skills in writing code and programming tasks 

• Deep technical expertise in data, platforms, and tools—including AWS, Snowflake, dbt, SQL & SQL optimization, data modeling, Python, RESTful APIs, near real-time stream processing, ETL & ELT approaches, and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform/CDK) 

• Strong problem solving and influencing skills, able to critically think through and elegantly address logic problems with code 

• Ability to navigate in the gray easily and work independently to guide the design and implementation of solutions and strategies 

• Excellent communicator and partnership skills with the ability to interface and influence across the organization, including executives 

• Experience creating architectural diagrams and artifacts that clearly and consistently define solutions used by product managers and engineering teams 

• Ability to create reference implementations used as initial working solutions 
• Solid grasp and believer of agile development approaches, including DevOps concepts 

Preferred Qualifications& Skills: 

• Experience working in the hospitality, travel, or entertainment industry 

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience 

Required Education: 

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience. 

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