Principal Software Engineer - Ad Experiences

ESPN; Glendale (CA); On-site; USD 188,000 - 277,000; Full time

Job summary

Disney Entertainment & Sports LLC is seeking a Principal Software Engineer for ESPN Product & Technology in the Santa Monica / Glendale / Seattle area. You will design and implement scalable systems, mentor engineers, and partner with product teams to translate requirements into robust technical solutions.

You will contribute to high-availability microservices, improve observability, and drive architectural decisions in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• BS or MS in CS/Engineering or equivalent work experience.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• Proficiency in Java and distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Write and review code and tests to high standards.
• Support engineers on On-Call shifts when needed.
• Read requirements and translate into feasible implementation tasks with leads.
• Explore proofs-of-concept and propose scalable ad serving solutions.
• Define and document designs for high-throughput, low-latency microservices.
• Improve observability with metrics, monitors, and alerts.
• Mentor and inspire others in software development.

Skills

Java

Distributed systems

Code review

Mentoring

Product collaboration

Communication

Education

BS or MS in CS/Engineering

Tools

SpringBoot

DynamoDB

Redis/Memcache

Kafka/Kinesis

AWS

Observability tools

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

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.

The Ad Experiences Fleet aims to unleash the magic of Disney by leveraging cutting‑edge creative tools and fostering creative innovation to craft captivating, interactive ad experiences that deeply resonate with consumers and deliver superior value for our advertisers while enhancing the viewer experience to maximize revenue.

As part of our team, you’ll develop and own systems that enable rapid prototyping, testing, and validation of interactive ad formats with real viewers and advertisers—fueling innovation and revenue growth across our CTV platforms. These experiences are then integrated into creative platforms also owned by the Fleet leading to new ad experiences available to all ad tier users.

As our team's Principal Software Engineer, you will apply your battle-tested experience, deep technical knowledge of software and systems, and leadership skills to help teams create scalable, performant, maintainable, and testable systems.

Daily, You Should Bring

• A willingness and desire to effectively communicate and collaborate across teams and organizations.
• Demonstrated ownership and expertise in the projects delivered by our teams.
• Proficiency in designing and implementing robust, scalable, tolerant distributed systems, as well as in advocating best practices to fellow engineers.
• A passion for mentoring, learning, and adapting to a very dynamic and fast‑paced environment.
• A proven ability to work with product teams to influence and translate requirements into well‑defined technical implementations, as well as the ability to define technical and operational metrics to measure system health.
• Possess knowledge of relevant technologies and their potential applications within our systems, and be able to articulate their pros and cons.
• A keen eye for potential optimizations and enhancements to our services using dedicated research time.
• Kindness and pragmatic optimism.
• Your unique view and experience.

Responsibilities And Expectations

• Writing some and reviewing a lot of code and tests.
• Reviewing code and test implementations for best practices and algorithmic complexity.
• Available to support engineers on an On-Call shift, when needed.
• Reading requirements documentation from Product, providing a perspective on feasibility and translating into implementation tasks, and partnering with teams’ leads through execution as needed.
• Exploring, researching, implementing proofs-of-concept, and proposing solutions that will improve Ad Serving systems (reduce cost and overhead, improve maintainability, minimize the time features take to be in production, etc).
• Defining, reviewing, and documenting software and system designs in a high throughput, low latency microservices environment.
• Enhancing systems’ observability with proper metrics, monitors, and alerts.
• Foster open communication during architectural discussions, confidently defending decisions while welcoming feedback.
• Bridge the gap between diverse team requirements and technical capabilities to deliver cohesive, scalable solutions.
• Mentoring and inspiring others in all aspects of professional software development.

Basic Qualifications

• BS or MS in Computer Science/Engineering or relevant work experience
• 10+ years of software engineering experience
• Advanced proficiency with Java, such as understanding heap, multi-threading, garbage collection, profiling
• Demonstrable analytical / problem-solving / design skills in a highly distributed and highly available services ecosystem
• Excellent communication, collaboration skills, and a strong teamwork ethic with both technical and non-technical audiences

Comprehensive Experience With

• SpringBoot and related Spring projects
• Non-relational database technologies e.g. DynamoDB
• Redis and/or MemCache
• Apache Kafka and/or Kinesis
• AWS or any other cloud platform
• Observability tooling (logs, metrics, etc)

Preferred Qualifications

• Comprehensive experience with Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes
• Ad Tech Industry knowledge.

Location

• Expected to be in the office four days a week.
• Office location : Santa Monica / Glendale / Seattle

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY is between $197,400 - $264,700, Los Angeles, CA is between $188,400 – $252,600, Seattle, WA is between $197,400 - $264,700 and San Francisco, CA is between $206,400 - $276,700. 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.

Disclaimer

This position is with Disney Entertainment & Sports LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology.

Disney Entertainment & Sports LLC is an equal opportunity employer.

Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

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