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. 

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

1. 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.

2. 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. 

3. Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and distinctive technical problems.

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.

Job Summary:

This is a hands-on engineering position developing mobile applications for ESPN inside the Apple Ecosystem with Obj-C/Swift. In this role, you will work with a cross-functional team of Product Managers, Designers, Mobile/Web/Backend Engineers, and Content Creators to conceptualize and develop world-class Disney apps. Based on your experience, you will apply technical expertise to manage individual project priorities, deadlines and deliverables and will design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance software solutions. You will architect reusable solutions that are shared across all Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology apps. You may lead others to solve complex problems and provide oversight and direction to other software engineers.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Use best practices and knowledge of internal or external business issues to improve products or services.

• Write efficient, reliable, and maintainable code whether implementing architectural improvements, user-facing features, or fixing defects.

• Build solutions for problems of sizeable scope and complexity that will be successfully deployed to customers/users.

• Influence and drive software engineering best practices within the team.

• Analyze and optimize application code for efficiency, reliability and performance.

• Managing multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.

• Operating as a resource to less experienced Software Engineers, providing an open learning environment for cross-team knowledge sharing.

• Coding, PR Reviews, Writing Tests

• Collaborating with QA and Automation Team

• Interacting with the Product Development team to review requirements and discuss feature development

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years hands-on professional development experience with the Apple ecosystem.

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise of OO design patterns and concepts.

• Expert understanding of HTTP/S, APIs, and web services.

• Expertise with unit test frameworks and continuous integration systems.

• Solid understanding of architecture, assisting Software Architects as necessary.

• Solid foundation and understanding of dynamic multi-threaded mobile apps.

• Motivated self-starter with the ability to learn and adapt to new technologies.

• Ability to collaborate in a small, productive development team as well as the larger engineering organization.

• Work well with minimal technical supervision and supplemental engineering support.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; can effectively articulate complex ideas and influence others through well-reasoned explanations.

Experience with:

• iOS/tvOS app development lifecycle including Apple App Store compliance policies and submissions requirements.

• Working on a significant consumer app that is currently available in the marketplace.

• Writing efficient, reliable, and maintainable code whether implementing architectural improvements, user-facing features, or fixing defects.

• Troubleshooting and resolving issues, problems, and errors encountered across various platforms.

• Analyze and optimize application code for efficiency, reliability and performance.

• Managing multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.

• Working on a highly collaborative team that rewards quality code and effective communication.

• Operating as a resource to other Software Engineers, providing an open learning environment for cross-team knowledge sharing.

Required Education  

• BS, BA, or advanced degree in computer science, engineering or its equivalent.

The hiring range for this position in Los Angeles, CA is $152,200 to $204,100 per year, is $159,500 to $213,900 per year in Seattle, WA is $166,800 to $223,600 per year in San Francisco, CA and is $159,500 to $213,900 per year in New York City, NY. 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.