Lead Software Engineer - AI Infrastructure & Tooling

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 DEEP&T 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:

1. 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.

2. 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. 

3. 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 and media engineering, quality assurance, as well engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. The Walt Disney Company is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status

Job Summary:

As Lead Software Engineer within DEEP&T, you will touch the lives of Disney fans around the world, working on innovative digital products and platforms from Disney, ESPN, National Geographic, ABC, Marvel, Star Wars and more.  You will be a leader on the Quality Engineering team, whose primary goal is continually improving the quality of the products that Disney is known for while decreasing time-to-market and enabling innovation.  This role makes you a stakeholder in every digital property developed and released by the DEEP&T group, as well as the platforms and enterprise applications that power them.

As an experienced software engineering leader who has a passion for leading engineers that drive quality and productivity into world-class applications and services, you will lead a small group of talented and driven software engineers dedicated to building test automation, tools, reports, and services that enable product delivery teams to deliver all Disney digital applications with the quality and reliability expected by our guests. 

Responsibilities:

• Owning and contributing to the architecture, development and maintenance of AI/ML frameworks and models that support test automation and tooling across multiple products

• Providing strategic input, defining and contributing towards Objectives and Key Results, and partnering within and across the organization to achieve them.

• Leading and mentoring junior developers, providing meaningful insight, code reviews and technical direction across the team.

• Developing and supporting high quality code to build and enhance test automation, quality infrastructure, and innovative proof-of-concepts.

• Leading communication for projects and overall team status within and across the organization.

• Keeping up with industry trends and new publicly available technologies, coming up with innovative ideas and solutions for complex technical problems

• Serving as an advanced resource for other engineers on the team, training and helping others to contribute meaningful and impactful features and capabilities.

• Being an active member of the larger Quality Engineering team, helping increase productivity and impact through innovation, curiosity, and thoughtful debate.

Basic Qualifications:

• 7 years of relevant software development experience, including designing, deploying and integrating AI/ML models into existing systems.

• Bachelor’s degree or the foreign equivalent in Computer Science or a closely related field or equivalent years of professional experience.

• Progressive experience in a software development (SDET or SE) occupation, including developing unit tests and/or automated testing of front end and backend services

• Proficient in object-oriented design and expertise with Python, Java and/or Node/JavaScript

• Experience leading teams of software engineers and/or SDETs

• Experience working with high-performing teams using Agile and Lean methodologies

• Experience in modern design patterns and techniques, deriving and gathering quality KPI’s to give insight into product’s health and progress

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience shipping production Python, Flask, Django, React or Node.js applications.

• Experience training custom AI/ML models, validating LLM/LVLM performance and accuracy.

• Experience with developing and deploying applications in cloud platforms (e.g. AWS) and optimizing cost efficiency.

• Experience with Kafka, Amazon SQS, SageMaker, and Kinesis 

• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Spinnaker, and continuous integration/delivery systems

• Experience with testcase management (e.g. JIRA Xray), code management (e.g. git, SonarQube) and data visualization (e.g. Grafana, Data Dog) tools.

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA and Glendale, CA is $152,200 to $204,100 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.