Sr Product Software Engineer

ESPN; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 151,000 - 202,000; Full time

Job summary

ESPN Technology in Seattle is hiring a senior software engineer to design and scale event-driven platforms powering Disney's streaming products. You will lead high-scale services, build robust observability, and own the end-to-end software lifecycle.

You’ll mentor engineers, coordinate across product and data teams, and drive innovation with prototypes and POCs. The role sits onsite four days a week in Seattle, WA, with a strong emphasis on leadership, reliability, and delivering impact across

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of experience building and scaling production-grade software in Java.
• Strong expertise in observability platforms including metrics, logging, tracing, and alerting.
• Proven ability to take ownership of the entire software development lifecycle from conception to deployment and operations.
• Excellent technical leadership and mentorship skills with a passion for growing engineering teams.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to leverage AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor for productivity.

Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: design and architecture of high-scale services and observability platforms.
• Execution & Autonomy: manage complex projects with clear milestones.
• Operational Excellence: own the full SDLC including deployment, monitoring, and on-call.
• Mentorship: guide junior and mid-level engineers through code reviews and guidance.
• Stakeholder Management: collaborate with product, client, and data teams to align decisions.
• Innovation: deliver prototypes and POCs for complex technical proposals.

Skills

Technical leadership

Mentorship

Communication

Cross-stakeholder collaboration

Ownership of SDLC

AI tooling

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

Terraform

AWS Kinesis

Databricks

CloudWatch

Job description

• This position must sit onsite four (4) days a week in our Seattle, WA technology location**

Overview

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we're reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world's most beloved stories while also transforming Disney's media business for the future. Whether that's evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to maximize flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney's unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

A few reasons why we’d love working for Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology:

• Building the future of Disney's media business: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power Disney's media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
• Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day - from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.
• Innovation: We develop and execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Job Summary

The Event Platform team is the pillar of a data processing pipeline responsible for powering core features and analytics across all of Disney's streaming services (including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, and more).

The team is responsible for transmitting billions of client-emitted signals throughout the Disney ecosystem. We build and manage platforms that process terabytes of data daily while performing real-time enrichment and aggregation for nearline and offline uses.

As a software engineer at Disney, you will help to build the platform that powers these applications. You will help design and scale infrastructure to support massive scale at low latency while improving the software delivery process. You will help innovate how event pipelines at Disney function and build out the next generation of streaming platforms.

We value creativity, curiosity, and inquisitiveness. If you believe in innovating and making an impact, join us and become a part of the team that creates magical Disney viewing experiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Lead the design and architecture of high-scale services and observability platforms, integrating them with existing telemetry infrastructure.
• Execution & Autonomy: Manage complex projects, taking high-level requirements and breaking them down into technical roadmaps with clear milestones.
• Operational Excellence: Own the full software development lifecycle, including deployment, monitoring, logging, and on-call.
• Mentorship: Actively mentor junior and mid-level engineers, focusing on their growth through constructive code reviews and technical guidance.
• Stakeholder Management: Collaborate cross-functionally with product, client, and data platform teams to negotiate architectural decisions and align technical plans with business goals.
• Innovation: Deliver working prototypes and proof-of-concepts (POCs) for complex technical proposals.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of experience building and scaling production-grade software in Java.
• Strong expertise in developing and operating observability platforms, including metrics, logging, tracing, and alerting.
• Proven ability to take ownership and responsibility for the entire software development lifecycle, from conception to deployment and operations.
• Excellent technical leadership and mentorship skills, with a passion for building and growing engineering teams.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to leverage AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor effectively for increased productivity.

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in streaming data applications like Apache Flink, Apache Kafka, or similar technologies.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services (specifically, Kinesis, MSF, Dynamo, ElastiCache, Lambda, Cloudwatch, Databricks).
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.
• Knowledge of data products and platforms, including Spark, Parquet, Athena, Databricks.
• Being an excellent teammate; actively helping the team and team members grow

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA is $150,900 to $202,400 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.

To learn more about Disney's guidelines on the use of AI for candidates, click here.

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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