Senior Software Engineer, Emerging Technology

The Emerging Technologies and Automation team focuses on amplifying business impact through innovation. We are part of the Technology Transformation team, working on driving measurable improvements in productivity, agility and employee satisfaction by automating the mundane, streamlining workflows and freeing people to do what they do best.

We are seeking a hands-on Senior Software Engineer to drive high-impact initiatives at the forefront of emerging technologies to unlock enterprise-wide capabilities. In this role, you’ll deliver rapid prototypes, build scalable proofs-of-concept, and help develop the technical solutions that advance transformation efforts.

You’ll work across a nimble, action-oriented team to explore AI-assisted development tools, experiment with new technologies, and translate abstract concepts into elegant, real-world solutions. Ideal candidates thrive in ambiguity, balance pragmatism with curiosity, and bring deep technical expertise paired with strong communication skills.

What You'll Do:

• Tackle ambiguity by building thin, end-to-end implementations that touch all major components of a system to evaluate the feasibility of emerging technologies and early prototypes to explore unknowns, validate assumptions, and help unblock teams.

• Embrace rapid iteration—prioritize speed and learning by delivering minimum lovable products and evolving them through continuous feedback.

• Serve as a technical leader and mentor.

• Support project planning and execution—help prioritize work, communicate effectively with stakeholders, and ensure timely, personal contributions of high-quality code and peer code reviews.

• Collaborate with product, platform and business partners to align priorities, define goals, and translate abstract ideas into working software and proofs of concepts with impactful outcomes.

• Continuously refine engineering practices and champion improvements that elevate team performance.

• Demonstrate in depth knowledge of current programming language and technologies via hands-on design, development, testing and debugging of components and highly scalable applications.

Required Qualifications & Skills: 

• 5+ years of full-stack software engineering experience with a strong coding background in languages such as Python, TypeScript, Node.js, Go or similar

• Proven ability to write clear, concise technical documentation and create professional system architecture diagrams using tools like Draw.io, Lucidchart, Mermaid, or PlantUML

• A passion for innovation, emerging technologies, and driving continuous improvement

• Demonstrated expertise in systems architecture, platform thinking, and technical leadership

• Strong communication skills with the ability to navigate conflict, build trust, and foster alignment across cross-functional teams; able to explain complex systems and tradeoffs to engineers, product managers, and stakeholders alike

• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure or GCP), microservices architecture, CI/CD pipelines, test, development and deployment approaches, including containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), A/B testing, etc

• Proficiency with AI/ML development tools, and experience integrating LLM-based APIs, AI agents, or prompt-based workflows

• Experience working with large-scale databases (SQL/NoSQL, Object, Graph, etc)

• Proven ability to navigate organizational complexity and deliver outcomes aligned with strategic objectives.

• Passion for Disney's mission and values

Preferred Qualifications:  

• AWS, GCP or Azure certification

• Experience with emerging technologies

• Experience with agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban

• A track record of success in automation and developer productivity initiatives

• Demonstrated experience building prototypes or experimental software in ambiguous or early-stage environments

Required Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience; advanced degree a plus

The hiring range for this position in Burbank, CA is $141,900 to $190,300 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.