Principal Product Engineer - Tech Leader

The Walt Disney Company; Glendale, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

The Walt Disney Company is seeking a Principal Product Software Engineer to set technical direction for high-scale content platforms across Disney Entertainment, ABC News, Marvel, and ESPN. You will lead design, coding, and architecture efforts, balancing opportunity with architectural clarity while mentoring engineers and driving collaboration across multiple teams.

You will actively shape backend systems, publish pipelines, and image services, contributing to products used by millions of fans

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience building large-scale, highly available services.
• Expert-level programming in Java or similar languages with CS fundamentals.
• Proven track record designing backend architectures spanning multiple teams.
• Experience mentoring engineers and setting technical direction beyond a single team.
• Experience with distributed systems, caching, and scalable platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, implementation, and delivery of software in complex problem spaces with long-term impact.
• Deconstruct large architectures into components that multiple teams can build independently.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to hiring and career growth.
• Promote engineering best practices and drive adoption across teams.

Skills

Java

Distributed systems

Backend architecture

Mentoring engineers

Technical leadership

Job description

The Walt Disney Company is seeking a Principal Product Software Engineer to set technical direction for high-scale content platforms across Disney Entertainment, ABC News, Marvel, and ESPN. You will lead design, coding, and architecture efforts, balancing opportunity with architectural clarity while mentoring engineers and driving collaboration across multiple teams.

You will actively shape backend systems, publish pipelines, and image services, contributing to products used by millions of fans