Senior Software Engineer

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.

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.

As a Senior Software Engineer for the Commerce Growth Messaging team, you will drive the technical evolution of a mission-critical, multi-tenant platform serving millions of global subscribers across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. You will be a key architect in ensuring that transactional messaging, the backbone of customer communication, remains resilient, scalable, and highly available. Your leadership will directly impact Disney Streaming’s international expansion, navigating the complex technical landscapes of global markets to deliver a seamless commerce experience.

Responsibilities

• Define the architectural direction and technical roadmap for messaging services and internal tools.

• Take end-to-end responsibility for the design, implementation, and deployment of large-scale distributed systems.

• Maintain and optimize high-availability services capable of handling massive traffic spikes across multiple streaming brands.

• Partner with multi-functional business units and stakeholders to integrate messaging requirements across diverse domains.

• Investigate and solve technical challenges related to internationalization as the streaming footprint grows worldwide.

• Drive engineering excellence by ensuring robust architecture and high-quality code delivery within a fast-paced environment.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of intensive experience in backend development.

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

• Mastery of Java or other modern backend programming languages.

• Deep knowledge of services including EC2, S3, Lambda, DynamoDB, SQS, RDS, and Kinesis (or equivalent cloud providers).

• In-depth experience with both Relational (SQL) and NoSQL databases.

• Proven proficiency in designing and implementing large-scale distributed systems.

• Demonstrated track record of taking full ownership of features and delivering complex projects end-to-end.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical partners.

• Strong ability to investigate deep-tier technical components while maintaining a high-level view of overall system architecture.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience working effectively within geographically distributed teams.

• Proven ability to quickly ramp up on new domains, technologies, and evolving industry standards.

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA is $148,700 to $199,400 per year and in Santa Monica, CA is $141,900 to $190,300 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.