Sr. Software Engineer - Emerging Technology

Walt Disney Animation Studios; Burbank (CA); On-site; USD 144,000 - 193,000; Full time

Job summary

Walt Disney Animation Studios seeks an Emerging Technology Sr. Software Engineer to build agentic workflows and tooling that empower technologists and production teams across the studio.

You will define agent definitions, run MCP servers, and connect agents to Maya, Houdini, Nuke, and internal tools. The role emphasizes responsible use of new tech, collaboration across disciplines, and delivering scalable, production-ready solutions.

Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent field; or equivalent work experience.
• 5+ years of software development/AI/ML engineering experience.
• Experience with large language models, agents, tool use, and prompt engineering.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain agents and agentic workflows for technologists and production teams.
• Define agent definition frameworks, orchestration, runtime components, and prompt management.
• Develop MCP servers, APIs, and integrations connecting agents to studio data and tools.
• Create agent context artifacts for high reliability in long-running agents.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to guide use cases from concept to production.
• Coordinate with security and platform teams to align with standards and guardrails.
• Produce documented standards, blueprints, and reusable patterns.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and share findings to shape technical direction.
• Support adoption via demos, docs, and knowledge sharing.

Skills

Large language models

Agentic workflows

APIs & backend

Collaboration

Communication

CI/CD pipelines

UNIX/Linux

Education

BS in Computer Science / Computer Engineering or equivalent

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

GitLab CI/CD

SQL

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

APIs

Job description

Job Requirements

At Walt Disney Animation Studios we have a deep commitment to the philosophy that creativity inspires technology, and technology inspires creativity. Engineers in our Production Technology department are charged with developing and implementing new algorithms to solve unique and challenging problems for all of our animated content. We do this working alongside talented people that share a collaborative environment with us, and use the code we develop daily.

Job Requirements

At Walt Disney Animation Studios we have a deep commitment to the philosophy that creativity inspires technology, and technology inspires creativity. Engineers in our Production Technology department are charged with developing and implementing new algorithms to solve unique and challenging problems for all of our animated content. We do this working alongside talented people that share a collaborative environment with us, and use the code we develop daily.

The Emerging Technology Sr. Software Engineer will collaborate with engineering and production teams to build supportive tooling and agentic workflows, focusing on templates and frameworks that help teams develop technical solutions efficiently. While partner teams provide the underlying platform, infrastructure, and governance, this role focuses on how agents are defined along with the use of MCPs, skills, and memory systems, connecting to studio data, pipelines, and applications to reliably deliver impactful benefits to production.

At Disney Animation, we employ a responsible and people-focused approach to using new technology. Human creativity and curiosity are immense and unique – and are at the heart of Disney Animation. And we are using this people-focused approach as we think of the possibilities for emerging technology within our Studio. Our studio thrives on a wide variety of technical backgrounds and experiences, so we encourage applicants to apply even if they have experiences not specified below.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain agents and agentic workflows that support technologists and production teams across the studio.
• Build the technology around agents by defining and supporting agent definition frameworks, including orchestration, runtime components, and prompt/context management, to make agentic development repeatable and reliable.
• Develop MCP servers, APIs, and integrations (including managing MCP servers for secure tool-use by AI agents) that connect agents to studio data, services, pipelines, and digital content creation tools (e.g., Maya, Houdini, Nuke, and proprietary in-house applications).
• Develop skills, memory and other agent context artifacts for maintaining high reliability in long-running agents.
• Collaborate with workflow and production stakeholders to guide validated use cases through every stage of development, spanning proof of concept, prototyping, MVP, and full production.
• Partner with platform, infrastructure, data, tooling, and security teams to ensure agent development aligns with studio standards, safety guardrails, and LLM security practices.
• Create documented standards, blueprints, and reusable patterns that help other engineering teams adopt agentic development.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, frameworks, and protocols; run experiments and share findings to help shape the studio's technical direction.
• Support adoption and responsible use through demos, documentation, and knowledge sharing with engineers and artists.

Key Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience.
• 5+ years of experience in software development, AI/ML engineering, and/or related disciplines.
• Proficiency in one or more languages such as C++, with strong software engineering fundamentals (version control, testing, code review).
• Hands‑on experience building with large language models, agents, tool use / function calling, retrieval‑augmented generation, prompt and context engineering, or model evaluation. Through either professional, academic, or personal projects.
• Familiarity with agentic frameworks, SDKs, and protocols (e.g., Model Context Protocol (MCP), Google ADK and A2A. Anthropic or OpenAI SDKs, LangGraph, or similar).
• Daily‑driver experience with AI code assistants (e.g., Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot) and agentic coding workflows.
• Experience designing and consuming APIs and backend services; familiarity with databases and query languages such as SQL.
• Experience with containerization and CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab CI/CD).
• Comfort working in UNIX/Linux environments.
• Ability to break down ambiguous problems into manageable steps, iterate quickly, and adapt as the technology landscape shifts.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills and a collaborative, cross‑functional working style.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with vector databases, embeddings, and semantic search; familiarity with vision‑language models (vLMs) and multimodal approaches.
• Experience with model gateways and MLOps tooling (e.g., LiteLLM, AWS Bedrock), including multi‑model routing, observability, and evaluation for AI systems.
• Familiarity with animation or VFX production workflows, computer graphics, and/or media systems.
• Experience within a studio production environment.

Disclaimer

PAY TRANSPARENCY

The hiring range for this position in California is $144,100 - $193,200 per year based on a 40 hour work week. The amount of hours scheduled per week may vary based on business needs. 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.

This position is with Walt Disney Pictures, which is part of a business we call Walt Disney Animation Studios.

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

Walt Disney Pictures 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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