Software Engineer II

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.

Media Engineering builds the software and systems that prepare media content and metadata for the Disney streaming platform - providing the best possible playback experience to our viewers.

Media Engineering handles audio, video, and metadata content from ingest through publish - for normalization, processing, and packaging - supporting operator tools and automation for a scalable workflow. We build logic across players and back-end services to measure, control, and optimize playback across our stack.

Job Summary:

As a video engineer for the Media Player Engineering team, you will help us provide the best in class video experience on browsers and browser based connected devices. You'll be pushing the envelope of what is technically possible with the most exciting content in the industry. 

We’re looking for a Software Engineer II who is proficient in JavaScript development, with deep knowledge of the browser API standards and JavaScript optimization tactics. 

We provide opportunities to elevate your career and to transform an industry. 

We truly believe we offer a unique opportunity for any technologist: 

• To work within a strong organization of video experts  

• To work on a bleeding edge video player stack 

• To work with a world-class team of engineers 

• To work in a highly collaborative team environment 

• To have an influence on the innovation of products used globally by millions 

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role: 

• Design and implement solutions for new features which integrate with various Disney media services/back-ends

• Collaboration and API design with peer services and front-end teams

• Research and development for media playback experiences, integration, and testing

• Participation in project planning and team operations

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training: 

• Minimum 3 years experience in software engineering. 

• 1 year experience working directly with HTML5 video playback (one or more of these technologies: MSE/EME, HLS, MPEG-DASH, Transport Stream, CMAF). 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and / or equivalent work experience 

• Strong verbal/written communication and data presentation skills. 

Preferred: 

• Proven track record as an entry level software engineer. 

• Experience working with server side JavaScript in Node.js or Deno. 

• Experience and expertise deploying web applications in any environment. 

• 2 years or more experience working directly with HTML5 video playback. 

The hiring range for this position in NYC/Seattle is $120,300 to $161,300 per year and in Morrisville is $109,400 to $146,700 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.