Lead Software Engineer

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. 

The Content Experience & Delivery team builds systems that provide data at scale to teams across Disney+, Hulu, and Star+. We implement reliable, high-request services that deliver data that helps power streaming user experiences, across web, mobile, and living room devices. We are looking for a software engineer who wants to build and operate these critical services that support all of our users! 

We're a fast-paced, dynamic, collaborative and fun team, and looking forward to finding out more about you! 

We are seeking a passionate and innovative Lead Software Engineer to join our Personalization team. In this pivotal role, you will spearhead the development of critical internal tools that empower our team to build and refine the best possible content discovery experience for our users. You will own the full-stack development of these tools, from a user-friendly interface for previewing recommendations to the essential backend components that integrate with our core services to facilitate evaluation and feedback. 

This is a unique opportunity for a versatile engineer with a passion for building exceptional user experiences and a deep understanding of the full web stack. You will work at the intersection of machine learning and software engineering, creating the tooling that allows us to understand, debug, and enhance the quality of our recommendations. If you are excited by the prospect of building modern applications and have a keen interest in the rapidly evolving world of AI, we encourage you to apply. 

What You'll Do: 

• Lead the development of our internal personalization toolkit. You will be responsible for the end-to-end design, implementation, and maintenance of our suite of internal web applications. 

• Build intuitive user interfaces. You will create front-end components that allow for the seamless preview and analysis of personalized recommendations, ensuring a smooth and informative user experience for our internal teams. 

• Develop the application backend. You will design, build, and maintain the supplemental backend components and services required for the internal tooling platform. 

• Collaborate with core service teams. You will partner closely with the engineering teams who own the large-scale backend and machine learning services to define requirements, integrate via APIs, and ensure seamless data flow to your tools. 

• Facilitate algorithm evaluation and feedback. Your work will be instrumental in enabling our team to effectively assess the performance of our recommendation models and gather valuable feedback from internal stakeholders. 

• Champion modern development practices. You will leverage your expertise in modern web technologies and AI-powered coding assistants to drive efficiency and innovation within the team. 

What You’ll Bring: 

Basic Qualifications 

• Minimum of 7+ years of related experience. 

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

• You have extensive experience in full-stack web development, with a proven track record of building and deploying complex applications. 

• You are proficient in modern web technologies, including a strong command of a contemporary JavaScript / TypeScript framework (e.g., React, Vue, or Svelte). 

• You are experienced in Python and have experience with at least one JVM language (e.g., Java, Scala, or Kotlin). 

• You have a keen interest in and hands-on experience with AI coding agents (e.g., GitHub Copilot) and are passionate about leveraging them to accelerate development. 

• You possess a strong understanding of how to consume, and in some cases, build APIs and backend services. 

• You are an excellent communicator and collaborator, with a history of successfully working with cross-functional teams to integrate complex systems. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• You are a product-minded engineer who is driven to build tools that are not only functional but also a pleasure to use. 

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