Lead Software Engineer

Disney Experiences; Glendale (CA); On-site; USD 156,000 - 209,000; Full time

Job summary

Disney Experiences Technology seeks a senior backend engineer to own end-to-end Java services, design reviews, and scalable deployments in a large enterprise environment across Disney brands.

You will mentor juniors, lead code reviews, and collaborate with product owners and TPMs to deliver reliable, high-performance software in a fast-paced, agile setting. Experience with AWS and container tech is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems or related field or equivalent work experience.
• 7+ years of backend/software engineering experience in a large enterprise with Java/Docker/Spring.
• Experience with AWS services (ECS, S3, Lambdas, RDS) and modern data stores.
• Strong mentoring, code-review leadership, and team-oriented collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end backend Java services: design reviews, coding, testing, and launch.
• Lead code reviews, mentor junior engineers, and set engineering standards.
• Collaborate with product owners, TPMs, and other teams to meet requirements.
• Develop scalable, high-performance solutions and maintain system stability.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and provide informed recommendations.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Communication

Agile experience

Team collaboration

Open source interest

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Java

Docker

Spring Framework

AWS (ECS, S3, Lambda, RDS)

Relational databases / NoSQL

Kubernetes

Git/GitHub

Job description

At Disney Experiences Technology, our team creates world-class immersive and digital experiences for the Company’s vacation brands, Disney’s Parks and Resorts worldwide, Disney Cruise Line, Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa, and Disney Vacation Club. The Disney Experiences Technology team is responsible for the end-to-end digital and physical Guest experience for all technology & digital-led initiatives across the Attractions & Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Resorts & Transportation, and Merchandise lines of business as well as other initiatives including the MyDisneyExperience app and Hey, Disney!

We are a group of Disney technologists who love to work on the latest technology to build new features, and improve existing components of Disney’s Online Platform specializing in Ticketing Products for various brands within the Walt Disney Company. Key Products include Tickets, Annual Passes, Special Events, and Park Reservations supporting both Disneyland, and Walt Disney World.

What You’ll Do:

• End to end ownership of backend Java services: ideate, review design, build, code-review, test, load-test, launch, monitor performance.
• Collaborate with other team members (including senior engineers, product owners, TPMs, and other business units) to achieve product and business requirements.
• Develop effective solutions, lead code reviews, hands-on development to lead and drive quality, and maintain application stability.
• Lead code reviews and provide leadership and direction to junior engineers while developing high engineering standards.
• Write complex programs, analyze code changes and suggest improvements.
• Check-in valuable, clean code on a daily basis that adds new features and capabilities.
• Create reference implementations for the purpose of mentoring and leading more junior staff (when required).
• Own the analysis, design, program, debugging, and modifications of software improvements and/or new products used in local, networked, cloud-based, or Internet-related computer programs
• Lead projects that may be used in commercial and end-user applications or focus on software and tools supporting infrastructure and technology platforms
• Work typically involves large or highly sophisticated software programs and systems
• Possess an in-depth knowledge of current backend programming language and technologies, with strong skills in writing code and completing programming tasks
• May perform or lead testing and debugging of applications, identifying innovative solutions
• Conceive, design, develop, test, and implement software components, fixes, improvements, and/or new systems and applications
• Interact with users to define system requirements and/or necessary modifications
• Help engage around the estimation and planning of highly sophisticated scalable projects and their budget allocations
• You will be expected to stay up to date with emerging technologies so you can make informed recommendations

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• A minimum of 7 years related work experience in backend development or software engineering in a large enterprise environment using Java/Docker/Spring Framework.
• Comfortable working in an agile environment
• A visionary who motivates teams to excel and fosters creativity, consistently driving excellence in all endeavors
• An advocate for a diverse and inclusive culture that encourages innovation and ensures every team member feels a sense of belonging
• Familiar with [add required technologies here], with a desire to further develop technical expertise in data engineering tools, methodologies, and emerging technologies
• Possess AWS managed service solution design and implementation experience
• Strong experience with AWS related services such as ECS, S3, Lambdas, and RDS.
• Ability to thrive within a fast-paced software application delivery, and product launch environment.
• Hands On Knowledge on Design Patterns, and Data Structures.
• Be able to demonstrate significant experience working with relational databases, and NoSQL data stores.
• Have a strong interest in open source technology.
• Possess good communication skills and enjoy mentoring and helping others to succeed as a team.

Required Education:

• Bachelor's or foreign equivalent Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience

Preferred Qualifications & Skills:

• Knowledge of performance testing and application profiling.
• Experience with AI tools such as RAG, Cursor, Github MCP, MariaDB MCP.
• 7+ Java experience, Spring Framework.
• Experience with AWS Suite (Service Management and Deployments, EC2 and ECS Containers, Elastic Search Caching, S3, Fargate, Lambdas, DynamoDB, MariaDB/MySQL, Kinesis, Developer Tools).
• Experience with jUnit Testing (Familiarity with jUnit 5 Preferred).
• Familiarity with Firebase Test Lab, Sauce Labs Test Cloud.
• Experience with GitLab, GitHub, GitHub Co-Pilot, Cursor.

The hiring range for this position in California is $155,700.00 to $208,700.00 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.