Sr Product Software Engineer

The Walt Disney Company; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 142,000 - 199,000; Full time

Job summary

The Walt Disney Company is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join the Payments team. You will own stability, scalability, and reliability of the multi-tenant payment platform powering Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu, collaborating across teams to evolve architecture and achieve operational excellence.

Responsibilities include leading design-to-operation efforts, building scalable systems, and ensuring security and PCI compliance while mentoring others and driving improvements in production services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.
• 5+ years of related work experience.
• Hands-on with Scala/Java or similar languages.
• Experience with API design (REST/gRPC).
• Experience with event-driven systems (Kafka/RabbitMQ/AWS).
• Exposure to AWS, Spinnaker, Kubernetes.

Responsibilities

• Own stability, scalability, and reliability of multi-tenant payment platform.
• Drive technical solutions from design through operation across teams.
• Develop expertise in Global Payments and international ecosystems.
• Design, build, and operate high-throughput payment processing systems.
• Lead reliability improvements and integrations with new payment processors.
• Champion security, PCI compliance, and best practices.

Skills

Scala

Java

API design

Event-driven systems

System design

Cloud platforms

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related

Equivalent work experience

Tools

Kafka

RabbitMQ

AWS SNS/SQS

AWS

Spinnaker

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 execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms. This includes product engineering, media engineering, quality assurance, engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

Disney, a global leader in entertainment, is seeking a talented and dedicated Senior Software Engineer to join our Payments team. This is a unique opportunity to be part of a team within the Commerce, Growth and Identity organization that manages the payment transactions of millions of customers across our celebrated platforms - Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu.

What We're Looking For

We value engineers who demonstrate a strong sense of ownership, accountability, and initiative. Success in this role requires proactively identifying problems, driving solutions with minimal direction, collaborating effectively across teams, and taking responsibility for the long-term health and reliability of the systems you build and operate.

Role Location:

This is an on-site role requiring 4 days in-person at designated office locations.

Responsibilities

• Own the stability, scalability, and reliability of our multi-tenant payment platform supporting Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu, proactively identifying and resolving issues before they impact customers.
• Demonstrate strong ownership by driving technical solutions from design through implementation and operation, collaborating across teams to evolve the architecture of Tier 1 payment services.
• Build deep expertise in Global Payments, taking initiative to understand international payment ecosystems and solve the unique challenges of serving a global streaming audience.
• Deliver at scale by designing, building, and operating high-throughput systems that process millions of payment transactions while maintaining performance, resilience, and operational excellence.
• Lead reliability and performance improvements for mission-critical payment services, including integrations with new payment processors and support for SCA and other regional payment requirements.
• Champion security best practices for payment data storage, tokenization, and PCI compliance, ensuring the platform meets the highest security standards.
• Maintain a high engineering bar by writing well-tested, maintainable code, actively participating in design discussions and code reviews, and continuously improving system quality.
• Take initiative to identify opportunities for innovation, operational improvements, automation, and technical debt reduction, helping shape the future of our payment platform.
• Operate with an ownership mindset, supporting critical production systems through on-call rotations, incident response, root cause analysis, and long-term corrective actions to improve service health.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience
• Minimum of 5 years of related work experience
• Proven hands‑on experience with Scala, Java, or similar programming languages.
• Proven hands‑on experience with API design, including REST and gRPC.
• Demonstrated analytical and strong system design skills.
• Hands‑on experience with event‑driven systems using technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or AWS SNS/SQS.
• Exposure to cloud infrastructure, such as AWS, Spinnaker, and Kubernetes
• Strong communicator and team player, able to adapt quickly and effectively in dynamic, fast‑paced environments.
• A commitment to continuous learning, mentorship, and striving for excellence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in functional programming environments, especially with Scala and the Cats Effect ecosystem
• Experience managing Tier 1 production services, including participation in on‑call rotations and incident response.
• Experience mentoring interns and junior engineers

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY is $148,700 to $199,400 and in Los Angeles, CA is $141,900 to $190,300 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.