Software Engineer II

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.

Content Platforms & Operations is responsible for the development and ongoing advancement of the technical and operational functions driving the worldwide distribution and monetization of Disney’s linear networks and theatrical content. This includes Disney’s media supply chain and storage, network and theatrical distribution operations, media localization, network transmission and origination, and more. The global team also plays a critical role as the primary collaboration point for Product & Technology with Disney’s EMEA, APAC, and LATAM regional business teams.

You will be part of the team creating the next-generation internal systems for movie distribution. You should be comfortable being part of a cross-functional team and working with a diverse group of business stakeholders and technologists. We expect you to have a deep understanding of Business Analysis, to be passionate about technology and the business, to keep up with the latest trends, and to have ownership in your project deliverables. As part of the Theatrical Distribution team, you will conceive, deliver, enhance, and influence products across the entire distribution value chain including sales, marketing, planning, operations, and finance. You will work in service of an overall company initiative to reimagine the Theatrical Distribution business as an integrated, automated, efficient and effective machine that can scale and flex in line with rapid, technology-driven business dynamics.

Summary:

As a Software Engineer II, you will use your coding, DevOps, and data skills to write and test code that delivers new features for our application portfolio. You will be an important part of a motivated team where we’ll be looking for you to collaborate with the team to drive application architecture, code quality, and make sure we are building the right things for our users.

We want someone that has experience in the web software development ranks - possessing 3 or more years’ experience in contributing to highly scalable, secure, performant, and usable web applications using Java/Java EE. The ideal candidate would possess exposure to both server-based and client-side technology (React, Node.js, RESTful Web Services), coupled with hands on data persistence and streaming technology experience (MySQL, Postgres, Redis, Kafka). Proficiency in real-time messaging systems such as RabbitMQ, and AWS SQS/SNS, coupled with hands-on experience in container orchestration tools like Docker and Kubernetes, and familiarity with NoSQL databases including Elasticsearch and Memcached, is considered highly advantageous.

While The Walt Disney Company is a large company, ideally, we’d like if you have some previous experience in a U.S. startup environment and be comfortable performing multiple roles. We strive to get things done quickly, with high quality, and we are committed to the agile methodology. Our work is guided by lean principles (looking at value and looking for waste; not doing anything ‘for the sake of doing it’).

Responsibilities:

• Provide technical guidance and evangelize best practices.

• Develop and maintain a deep understanding of our core systems and how they interact with upstream and downstream dependencies.

• Contribute and review code, set standards, and work with engineers to ensure product and design specifications are met

• Responsible for fundamental platform performance, scalability, and resiliency

• Partner with stakeholders to refine requirements, and propose solutions to problems that span multiple teams

• Contribute to cross-functional troubleshooting of complex issues as needed

Basic Qualifications:

• BS Computer Science or related technical discipline or its equivalent

• 3+ years of experience building internet-scale API or services applications

• Strong understanding of async programming models (events, callbacks, etc)

• Demonstrated proficiency designing APIs and building RESTful services

• Experience in Java and multiple open-source technologies like; Spring, Tomcat, Nginx, Elastic Search, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, etc.

• Familiar with cloud-based technologies such as AWS EC2, SQS, S3, Lambdas, DynamoDB, Elasticsearch, Cloudformation/Terraform, etc.

• Complete understanding of the full lifecycle of application development, including best practices of unit testing, code reviews, documentation, etc.

• Experience with build and deployment technologies such as Jenkins and Docker

• Motivated self-starter with the ability to learn and adapt to new technologies. Can effectively articulate complex ideas and influence others through well-reasoned explanations

• Enjoy working within a team setting of engineers of varying experience

• Strong communication skills and attention to detail

Preferred Qualifications:

• Previous work experience in media distribution

• Comfort and experience using AI-assisted coding tools such as GitHub Co-pilot, Amazon Q Developer or Claude Code

• Experience working with vendor teams to deliver high quality results

• Experience collaborating with teams located across the globe

• Knowledge of performance testing and application profiling

• Strong curiosity about how Disney delivers the Magic and a desire to be a part of it

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Glendale, CA is $114,900 to $154,100. 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.