Lead Solutions 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.

Ad Platforms is responsible for Disney’s industry-leading ad technology and products – driving advertising performance, innovation, and value in Disney’s sports, news, and entertainment content, across all media platforms.

The Ad Platforms Technical Operations team seeks an experienced Lead Solutions Engineer to oversee and ensure the optimal performance of our Live Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) channel. The ideal candidate enjoys solving complex and technical problems and has experience in the Live DAI field. You will need proven leadership skills, a sense of urgency, experience with critical service operations, and the ability to problem-solve in high volume production environments. This is an exciting opportunity for a digital media enthusiast to join the fast-paced, talented professionals on the Ad Platform team.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain operational dashboards in Conviva, Datadog, Snowflake, etc.
• Establish channel-specific key performance metrics (KPM) to track channel and deliver monthly KPM reports to diverse audience of advertising stakeholders
• Maintain detailed operational documentation for both internal and external consumption.
• Investigate complex issues, diagnose product bugs, and resolve requests
• Work with team to develop strategies to automate operational DAI workflows for live event management and addressable linear programming
• Develop strong partnerships with ad sales, account managers, engineering, infrastructure, design, and production teams to deliver strategic and tactical channel objectives.
• Assist in creating channel-specific onboarding and cross-training documentation
• Provide live event management support during non-business hours.
   

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in digital advertising operations or support, preferably with a focus in video advertising technology.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Broadcasting, Digital Media, related technical fields, or equivalent experience
• Experience with OTT streaming technologies including HLS and MPEG-DASH
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate and partner across multiple teams and organizations
• Strong understanding of digital advertising specs including VAST, VMAP, SCTE, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to technical and unacquainted audiences
• Knowledge of professional software engineering practices & best practices for the full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations
• Strong presentation and documentation skills including experience working with Confluence, PowerPoint, and LucidChart
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
   

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with live event management for high concurrency events
• Experience with digital advertising systems and ecosystems
• Experience with terminal commands, and scripting languages for task automation and debugging
• Experience tracing ad calls using proxy and debugging tools to decode VAST
• Experience with ad event tracking, log-level data processing, and reporting for ad campaign performance.
   

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in LA is $138,900 to $186200 per year, in NYC/Seattle is $145,000 to $195,000 per year and in SF is $152,100 to $203,900. 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.