Principal Software Engineer, AI Solutions & Development at Disney Experiences

“We Power the Magic!” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences (DX) Tech & Digital. Our team creates world-class immersive experiences to consumers through our Parks & Resorts worldwide, Cruise Lines, and Disney Vacation Club. We are responsible for the end-to-end digital and physical Guest experience for all technology initiatives across the Attractions & Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Resorts & Transportation and Merchandise. Our global team is comprised of nearly 3,000 professionals across technology, product, data, and operations functions, focusing on the development and implementation of digital technology strategies for our businesses around the world.

This role sits in a JedAI Platform team and as a Principal level Engineer, you will report into the Sr Manager of AI Engagement. You will be positioned as an expert in Generative AI across Disney Experiences. You will lead a squad of engineers to deliver POC’s of LLM applications. This role will be responsible for delivery of high-quality AI solutions within highly visible strategic projects and requires active collaboration with cross-functional teams.

We’re looking for someone with passion for Generative AI and LLMs, with a proven track record of delivering innovative AI applications. The ideal candidate should be able to confidently lead technical discussions, make critical decisions, and help implement best practices across the organization. The ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and communicate complex ideas to technical and non-technical audiences is essential in this role.

You Will:

• Lead a team of engineers and analysts to deliver POCs of LLM applications, driving technical decisions and best practices 

• Architect, design, and develop AI applications, integrating with Google Vertex, Microsoft OpenAI Azure, and other LLM suites 

• Design and implement effective prompts, configure LLM settings, and optimize performance through prompt crafting, RAG, fine-tuning and other techniques 

• Lead and influence cross-functional teams to define requirements, manage user expectations, and deliver high-quality AI solutions 

• Develop and maintain API endpoints, front-end features, and full-stack applications that leverage LLMs and Generative AI models

• Implement AI applications that comply with ethical guidelines and legal standards, particularly regarding data privacy and user consent 

• Integrate analytics and monitoring tools to track user interactions, application performance, and the efficiency of LLM integrations 

• Mentor, motivate, and develop the technical capabilities of existing engineering team to cultivate a culture of collaboration and excitement

• Stay up-to-date with emerging trends and advancements in Generative AI, LLMs, and related technologies 

• Continuously learn and adapt to emerging changes in AI and LLMs to ensure that the approach the team take is always at the forefront of innovation while maintain backward integrability. 

• Drive the adoption of new tools, frameworks, and techniques to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the team’s work. 

You Have:

• 10+ years of experience in full-stack software development, with a strong focus on building enterprise-scale distributed and cloud or hybrid-cloud applications 

• Regarded as an expert in the growing field of AI and developed AI solutions, prototypes, including GenAI and LLMs 

• Experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX, LangChain, Kubernetes, and Docker 

• Deep understanding of AI frameworks including Huggingface, semantic search, RAG, LLM agents, AgentGPT, orchestration, plugins, and LLM Ops 

• Experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures or frameworks like Langchain for building LLM-powered applications 

• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript, and experience with frameworks like React and Node.js 

• Experience with cloud platforms such as Google Vertex, Microsoft OpenAI Azure, AWS, and Azure, using various solutions for developing integrations, APIs, and AI/ML applications 

• Familiarity with databases (e.g., MongoDB, CosmosDB) and big data tools (e.g., Hive, Hadoop, Hbase) and data visualization tools such as Matplotlib, Seaborn, or Plotly

• Strong understanding of data preprocessing techniques for LLMs, including tokenization, embedding, and feature engineering, to optimize model performance and accuracy 

• Experience creating strategy and process for multi-release code management and CI/CD pipeline using tools like Git, Jenkins, and Artifactory 

• Ability to strategically influence and communicate complex ideas, anticipating varying perspectives and objections

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.

Preferred Education:

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

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Glendale, CA is $180,700 to $242,300 per year and in Seattle, WA is $189,300 to $253,800 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.