Job Summary:

Lead Software Engineer

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.

Product Engineering

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.

Our team is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to help us deliver excellent streaming experiences for Hulu, migrating apps to our new unified player to improve native playback experience on PlayStation, Xbox, Android, and other platforms. Our team is responsible for native playback across several devices including gaming consoles, mobile devices, and set top boxes. You will have the opportunity to lead in new playback feature development for Hulu, and the integration of our cross-platform C/C++ and Rust player that runs across Disney brands and apps.

We’re looking for an experienced C/C++ and/or Rust engineer who has low level video player and cross platform development experience with an emphasis on Xbox and Windows UWP development. You should have a passion for coding and debugging hard problems, and an eagerness to help us deliver seamless video to our subscribers.  As a lead engineer, you will get to own large features, lead the technical direction of our work, and mentor and provide technical expertise to other engineers. You will work closely with other technical teams in the application layer and backend video services to deliver features.

This opening is for a USA based employee, within commuting distance to our offices in San Francisco, CA. 

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

Port and optimize the Rust and C/C++ player that drives our streaming experience to Xbox and other platformsCollaborate with application development teams, services engineering teams and product management to help understand and explain device limitations and requirementsEnsure that the latest audio and video standards like Dolby Vision, Dolby ATMOS, HDR10+, and more are delivered with full fidelity.Lead in strategies to ensure the quality and stability of our deployments, including testing strategies and telemetry approachesLead in strategies to ensure the quality and stability of our deployments, including testing strategies and telemetry approachesDevelop our project’s build system and continuous integration system as neededProvide technical expertise or mentoring to developers on our teamHold our team accountable to high development standards

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Minimum of 7 years of related work experienceLong record of full software development lifecycle experienceFluent in C and C++ or RustStrong understanding of Git and branching strategiesWilling to learn RustExperience with Windows and Xbox developmentExperience developing and optimizing multi-threaded applicationsExperience using build runners / compilation tools for multi-platform projectsStrong individual contributor with a drive to learn and patience to teach othersGreat communication and collaboration skills and a strong teamwork ethicBachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience

Preferred:

RustExperience with Microsoft Media Foundation (MF)Experience in Streaming technologies, including:HLS (preferred) or DASHDRM technologies like Playready or WidevineAdaptive Bitrate Streaming AlgorithmsCaption and subtitle formats such as CEA-608 / 708Codecs AVC, HEVC, AAC, EAC3Embedded and Cross-Platform DevelopmentExperience with one or more of CMake, Cargo, Gradle, MSBuildExperience using Jenkins, Docker and ArtifactoryEmbedded operating system experienceExperience developing for other gaming consoles (e.g. Playstation, Switch), and/or Android devices (e.g. FireTV), or similar
This posting is seeking candidates to fill multiple roles in Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, and Morrisville, NC. 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. - The hiring range for this Lead Software Engineer in Seattle, WA is $159,500 to $213.900 per year based on a 40 hour work week. - The hiring range for this Lead Software Engineer in San Francisco, CA is $166,800 to $223,600 per year based on a 40 hour work week. - The hiring range for this Lead Software Engineer in Morrison, NC is $145,000 to $194,400 per year based on a 40 hour work week. The amount of hours scheduled per week may vary based on business needs.