Senior Software Developer - AWS / Platform

ESPN; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 144,000 - 193,000; Full time

Job summary

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is seeking a Senior Software Engineer for the Cloud Account Management (CAM) team. You will design, build, and support automation, IAM, and cloud‑native tooling to enable secure, self‑service workflows for developers in the AWS environment.

You will partner with Application DevOps teams, mentor peers, and drive secure, scalable cloud practices across Disney Streaming.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong Python development skills, producing production‑quality code
• Experience with deployment and CI/CD tools: Terraform, GitHub Actions, Spinnaker, and Jenkins
• Experience with platform engineering, backend Python development
• Experience developing APIs and designing database schemas
• Hands‑on AWS Security/IAM administration and policy creation for many users/workloads
• Familiarity with Docker and containerization concepts
• Experience with Unix/Linux systems
• Clear, succinct written and verbal communication with technical and non‑technical stakeholders
• Familiarity with operational troubleshooting tools and techniques

Responsibilities

• Write automation tools for your team and other internal teams to self‑service, deploy, detect, alert, and mitigate in our AWS environments
• Build on AWS, including hands‑on work with IAM, security policies, and cloud‑native services
• Champion and execute best practices and security standards for operating in the cloud
• Troubleshoot and implement appropriate IAM permissions for user access and workloads running in AWS
• Provide guidance and recommendations to development teams on service design and deployments
• Own initiatives and contribute to future solution designs and planning
• Be a go‑to technical resource on the team, spanning across levels and cross functional teams
• Monitor and work on inbound issues

Skills

5+ years experience

Python development

CI/CD tooling

Backend development

APIs & DB schemas

AWS IAM

Docker

Unix/Linux

Communication

Troubleshooting

Tools

Terraform

GitHub Actions

Spinnaker

Jenkins

Job description

• This position must sit onsite four (4) days a week in one of our technology offices listed above***
• This position must sit onsite four (4) days a week in one of our technology offices listed above***

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

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.

Job Summary

The Production Platform Foundations team is a horizontal service team providing both tools and guidance across the organization for operations in AWS. We strive to act as a productivity multiplier, providing consulting and operational support to Application teams to help them drive their adoption of AWS services in conjunction with their existing infrastructure. We work closely with those groups to offer a 'cloud-native' perspective on application architecture, infrastructure, and deployment strategies.

A Senior Software Engineer on the Cloud Account Management (CAM) team is a security‑focused cloud engineer responsible for designing, building, and supporting automation and tooling initiatives that further enable secure, compliant, self‑service ways of working for both the team and the developer base. In addition, this role will provide operational and technical guidance to Application Development (DevOps) teams that are utilizing the AWS environment at Disney Streaming. This position will report to the Engineering Manager and will interact with other Software Engineers in the Cloud Account Management (CAM) team.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Write automation tools for your team and other internal teams to self‑service, deploy, detect, alert, and mitigate in our AWS environments
• Build on AWS, including hands‑on work with IAM, security policies, and cloud‑native services
• Champion and execute best practices and security standards for operating in the cloud
• Troubleshoot and implement appropriate IAM permissions for user access and workloads running in AWS
• Provide guidance and recommendations to development teams on service design and deployments
• Own initiatives and contribute to future solution designs and planning
• Be a go‑to technical resource on the team, spanning across levels and cross functional teams
• Monitor and work on inbound issues

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, or equivalent practical experience
• Strong Python development skills, you write production‑quality code, not just scripts
• Experience with deployment and CI/CD tools - Terraform, GitHub Actions, Spinnaker, and Jenkins.
• Experience with platform engineering, primarily backend development using Python
• Experience developing APIs and designing database schemas
• Hands‑on AWS Security/IAM administration and policy‑creation experience for many users and workloads
• Familiarity with Docker and containerization concepts
• Experience with Unix/Linux systems
• Exhibit clear, succinct written and verbal communication with technical and non‑technical stakeholders. Taking a practical, collaborative approach when working with engineers.
• Familiarity with operational troubleshooting tools and techniques

Nice To Have, But Not Required

• Experience leveraging AI as a productivity multiplier
• AWS Certifications
• Experience supporting DevOps teams in mid‑to‑large‑sized organizations, especially in multitenant environments
• Familiarity with SSL Certificate management
• Familiarity with general and AWS‑specific networking concepts, including VPC constructs, Firewalling, and DNS

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA and Glendale, CA is $144,100.00 to $193,200.00 per year and in New York, NY is $150,900.00 to $202,400.00 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.

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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