Lead Software Engineer, Platform - Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we’re reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world’s most beloved stories while also transforming Disney’s media business for the future. Whether that’s evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to maximize flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney’s unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

A few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

• Building the future of Disney’s media business: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power Disney’s media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.

• Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day – from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.

• Innovation: We develop and execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

The Commerce, Growth & Identity (CGI) team is dedicated to three business-critical areas at Disney that will help transform its media business. They create seamless user experiences for consumers who can choose from a wide range of subscription plans, enabling more choice and flexibility. The CGI team is also focused on building innovative and cutting-edge capabilities that will drive subscriptions, engagement, and monetization across Disney’s streaming and digital products.

Identity Engineering at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology provides essential Consumer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) capabilities for flagship brands such as Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and Parks. Our mission-critical systems are integral to every user’s journey across The Walt Disney Company (TWDC).

As a Lead Software Engineer on the Platform & Data Enablement (PDE) squad, you will lead the delivery and operational success of global services. This role is pivotal in fostering a mature DevOps culture where ‘you build it, you run it’ is the ethos. Your leadership will ensure our services are robust, scalable, and aligned with the highest standards of operational excellence.

Join an inclusive engineering organization grounded in Agile and DevOps best practices, functional programming, and a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with engineering squads to deploy and maintain stateful microservices and FaaS within a large-scale, multi-region cloud environment.

• Assist engineering squads in migrating to a unified, self-service platform, enhancing scalability and observability.

• Mentor engineers in adopting a DevOps operating model and foster a culture of accountability.

• Work with other engineering leaders and Product/Project Management to influence squad roadmap and architecture.

• Promote Agile practices through active participation in ceremonies like stand-ups and planning sessions.

• Empower other engineers through mentorship, enhancing their technical skills and professional growth.

• Foster an inclusive culture that values learning, collaboration, and excellence.

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum of 7 years of related work experience

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

• Extensive AWS experience: EC2, ECS/EKS, Lambda, ELB, ASGs, Route53, KMS, SSM, IAM, S3, ACM, VPC.

• Deploying and operating AWS data streaming and event-driven services at scale (e.g., Kinesis, DynamoDB, Lambda).

• Designing, building, and operating distributed systems with robust failover and fallback strategies.

• Proficiency in JVM-related performance issues, logging, monitoring, and tracing tools (e.g., CloudWatch, Datadog, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, PagerDuty).

• Experience with Terraform Enterprise, Spinnaker, Jenkins, and GitHub.

• Track record in medium- to large-sized projects and platform initiatives.

• Practical application of Agile methodologies, CI/CD, and DevOps practices.

• Adherence to high-quality coding, testing, and development standards.

• Ability to navigate ambiguity and apply technical judgment effectively.

• Mentorship experience in guiding teams toward a DevOps, ‘you build it, you run it’ model.

• Experience transitioning centralized Ops teams to embrace DevOps.

• Excellent communication, collaboration skills, and a strong teamwork ethic.

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY is $156,300 to $209,600 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.