Sr Software Engineer - Business Operations

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

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. 

The Business Operations team helps guide and articulate technology strategy and research, and is responsible for driving the day-to-day operation of the Product & Technology organization, including: project and portfolio management and tracking; organization-level capital, space, and resource management and allocation; process management; technical incident management; and our administrative and workplace experience support team. 

Job Summary:

Join our Business Operations engineering team as a Senior Software Engineer and become a core driver of organizational efficiency. You will play a key role in the development, maintenance, and enhancement of our critical application portfolio.

In this role, you will leverage your deep technical expertise to deliver immediate impact, owning the end-to-end development of complex, medium-to-large-scale features and resolving high-priority system defects. You will act as a go-to technical authority, actively mentoring peers, defining and championing engineering best practices, and contributing to architectural decision-making.

Success in this role requires clear communication and strong technical leadership to collaborate effectively with cross-functional roles like Product Management, QA, and Infrastructure Engineering, ensuring cross team alignment and high-quality, efficient software solutions.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

Technical Leadership & Expertise

• Own the design, development, and successful deployment of medium-to-large size software solutions, ensuring performance, quality, scalability, and security.

• Drive software engineering best practices, including design, code quality, security and testability within the team.

• Exhibit deep and broad technical expertise, with hands-on proficiency in key functional/specialty areas.

• Serve as a primary technical resource for the team, offering guidance on technical issues and new feature development.

Execution & Impact

• Solve complex technical problems with an innovative and experimental can-do attitude grounded by advanced technical skill and technique.

• Conduct thorough code reviews, focusing on requirements, design and coding standards, readability, testability, and optimization.

• Mentor and guide the work of less experienced engineers to develop solutions.

• Identify opportunities and recommend the development or implementation of solutions to improve products or processes with each iteration.

• Document technical details for assigned features, fixes, and projects.

Autonomy & Influence

• Work independently with minimal guidance, applying judgment in selecting methods and techniques to resolve issues or satisfy requests.

• Make timely, informed technical decisions that moderately influence the work of team members and related projects.

• Participate in developing new technical approaches and tools.

• Communicate complex technical information effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications:

• 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience

• Strong problem-solving and analytical thinking.

• Ability to write clean, maintainable, and scalable code.

• Strong proficiency in React.js and its ecosystem (Hooks, Context API, React Router, etc.).

• Experience with state management libraries (Redux etc).

• Knowledge of TypeScript for better type safety and scalability.

• Understanding of modern UI/UX principles and component-driven development.

• Strong experience with Node.js, Express.js, or NestJS for building APIs.

• Proficiency in RESTful APIs and GraphQL development.

• Knowledge of authentication & authorization (JWT, OAuth, OpenID).

• Experience with microservices architecture and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).

• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI.

• Understanding of testing frameworks (Jest, Mocha, Cypress, JUnit).

Preferred Qualifications:

• 2+ years direct experience in a senior or lead role

• Experience integrating with and extending Headless Content Management Systems (CMS) architecture, specifically managing content structures and presentation layers (e.g., using CMS APIs with Next.js).

• Advanced knowledge of application security best practices and mitigation techniques (e.g., securing APIs, protecting against common web vulnerabilities).

• Knowledge of event-driven architectures (AWS SNS/SQS, Kafka, RabbitMQ).

• Understanding of serverless functions (AWS Lambda, Firebase Functions).

• Exposure to AI/ML integration in web applications.

• Exposure to AI assisted coding tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot)

Required Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience

The hiring range for this position in Washington is $148,700.00 to $199,400.00 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.