Principal Systems Engineer

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.

• 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.

Job Summary:

Describe what the person will do in the role - how he/she will impact the organization.

The individual in this position will join the Engineering Services Infrastructure team in an exciting, fast paced environment, supporting, securing, and managing our storage solutions through a variety of technologies.  We leverage several storage platforms. 

Primary Technologies are: Block, File, and Object storage, SAN attached storage, and other enterprise level solutions covering on-premise and cloud. 

This role will apply architecture best practices to establish, review and maintain standards for storage across the enterprise.  The individual will ensure that technologies chosen are consistent with the architecture blueprints and long term strategies of the Walt Disney company.  Finally, this role is charged with building and communicating to the organization the strategic blueprints, and reference architectures for the Live, VOD, and storage domains.  

The individual must have a broad knowledge of Storage as a Service and cloud technologies such as AWS, Azure and GCP.  Working with other team members they will develop project strategy, blueprints, and engage vendors to select and implement solutions.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Lead the design and architecture of complex systems
• Define system requirements and specifications based on business goals and decisions
• Translate enterprise business strategy into domain blueprints and roadmaps.  This will require negotiating with senior management and customers to influence decisions and strategic direction.
• Create high-level architecture and detailed designs
• Apply deep technical knowledge for the storage domains in a project or Enterprise context across Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology.
• Responsible for ensuring that consistent practices are followed, reference architectures are developed and maintained. 
• Responsible for developing, maintaining and applying standards for projects and programs. 
• Responsible to complete discovery activities for Storage solutions (Vast, Pure, etc.), recommend and design the specific implementations to support the requirements of the individual business groups (Disney+, ESPN Linear, Studios, etc.)
• Perform system performance trend analysis as required
• Works with cross-functional teams, collaborating with engineers and other stakeholders
• Manage the development, implementation and administration of operational processes, programs, and systems
• All other duties as required to help achieve business goals, including but not limited to, availability for afterhours escalated support

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field of study
• 10+ years of relevant experience
• Demonstrated expertise in scripting using Perl, Bash, Shell or equivalent
• Possesses strong analytical and technical skills
• Excellent understanding of storage systems
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills: Ability to communicate effectively with end-users, business owners, developers, managers, and systems engineers
• Ability to discuss highly technical concepts to a variety of audiences, including executive level and technical decision-makers
• Industry expert and understanding of software solutions for content creation, manipulation, encoding/transcoding and distribution.
• Have a thorough knowledge of the syntax, capabilities, and limitations of the Linux operating systems

Preferred:

• Strong commitment to customer service and service enablement
• Demonstrates ability to deliver detailed technical documentation
• Experience working within an Agile Scrum methodology
• Knowledge of process management, process streamlining, and process organization tools as well as a fundamental understanding of ITIL best practices
• Expert knowledge of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
• Expert knowledge in working and supporting storage systems
• Expert scripting and automation skills (e.g., PowerShell, vbscript, Python, UNIX shell, etc.)
• Strong problem solving and troubleshooting skills

The hiring range for this position in Glendale, CA is $152,200 to $204,100 per year and in New York, NY is $159,500 to $213,900 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.