Lead Software Engineer

5014 Disney Entertainment & Sports LLC; Glendale (CA); On-site; USD 155,700 - 208,700; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Job summary

Disney is seeking a Lead Software Engineer in Glendale, CA to design and deliver scalable microservices for its real-time ad tech platform. You will own backend systems, collaborate with product teams, and drive architectural decisions that impact Disney’s advertising stack.

You will mentor teammates, optimize performance, and contribute to observability and reliability in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Computer Science/Engineering or relevant work experience.
• 7+ years of software engineering experience.
• Advanced proficiency with Java and SDLC knowledge.
• Experience with SpringBoot, AWS, and modern DevOps tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of high-throughput microservices.
• Collaborate with product teams to translate requirements into technical tasks.
• Improve observability with metrics, monitoring, and alerts.
• Mentor peers and advocate clean, scalable code.
• Participate in on-call rotations per policy.

Skills

Java proficiency

System design

Problem solving

Team collaboration

Education

BS or MS in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

SpringBoot

DynamoDB

Redis

MemCache

Apache Kafka

Kinesis

AWS

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Job Posting Title: Lead Software Engineer Req ID: 10142072

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. As part of ad platform engineering, the programmatic teams build and maintain Disney’s programmatic advertising suite of products and services that comprise Disney’s Real‑time Ad Exchange (DRAX). DRAX is an award‑winning, proprietary SSP that enables the configuration of programmatic deals and integrates programmatic demand from multiple third‑party sources into disney’s ad server in real time. As a Lead Software Engineer, you will apply your deep technical knowledge and skills to help us deliver scalable, performant, maintainable, loosely coupled, encapsulated, and testable software and systems.

Reasons to Work 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.

Daily, you should bring

• A willingness and desire to effectively communicate and collaborate across teams and systems
• Demonstrated project ownership
• Guidance and mentorship on system and API design, as well as implementation best practices such as microservice encapsulation and loose coupling
• A passion for mentoring, learning, and adapting to a very dynamic and fast‑paced environment.
• A proven ability to work with product teams to translate requirements into well‑defined technical implementations, as well as the ability to define technical and operational metrics to measure system health
• A keen eye for potential optimizations and enhancements
• Kindness and pragmatic optimism
• A deep understanding of Java and the Software Development Lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Holistic understanding of the team’s domain and serving as a point of contact for stakeholders
• Leading by example, supporting their peers, and striving to improve code and design towards more scalable, clean, and decoupled implementations
• Facilitate discussions and drive resolution, making sure outcomes are clear and well‑communicated
• Designing, implementing, and testing solutions to various engineering problems in a high‑throughput, low‑latency microservices environment
• Understanding and use of automated tools (AI) while adhering to company policy
• Reading and understanding product user stories, translating them into actionable tasks, and leading the team through their execution
• Improve system observability by implementing comprehensive metrics, monitoring, and alerting solutions
• Available for On‑Call rotations based on the team’s escalation policy and support schedule

Basic Qualifications

• BS or MS in Computer Science / Engineering or relevant work experience.
• 7+ years of software engineering experience.
• Strong foundation in computer science principles, including data structures and algorithms.
• Advanced proficiency with Java, including but not limited to understanding memory management, multi‑threading, profiling, thread pools, connection pools, and HTTP protocols.
• Demonstrable analytical/problem‑solving skills.
• Great communication, collaboration skills, and a strong teamwork ethic with both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Experience with:
  • SpringBoot and related Spring projects.
  • Non‑relational database technologies like DynamoDB.
  • Caching datastores such as Redis, ValKey, or MemCache.
  • Data Streaming Mechanisms such as Apache Kafka and/or Kinesis.
  • Cloud platforms such as AWS.
  • Modern DevOps tools such as Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes.
  • Microservice architecture.

Preferred Qualifications

• Domain knowledge in the Ad Tech industry.
• Domain knowledge in programmatic advertising.

Additional Information

Engineers are expected to be in the office four days a week. The specific location depends on the team’s location and the hiring manager’s input. The hiring range for this position in Glendale, California is $155,700 to $208,700 per year and Santa Monica, California is $155,700 to $208,700 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.

Job Posting Segment: Ad Platforms

Job Posting Primary Business: AP - Engineering

Job Posting Primary Job Posting Category: Product Software Engineering

Employment Type: Full time

Primary City, State, Region, Postal Code: Glendale, CA, USA

Alternate City, State, Region, Postal Code: USA - CA - 2450 Broadway

Date Posted: 2026-04-28

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