Lead Software Engineer

Job ID 10117313 Location Orlando, Florida, United States / Glendale, California, United States / Seattle, Washington, United States / Anaheim, California, United States Business Disney Experiences Date posted Apr. 07, 2025

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Job Summary:

“We Power the Magic!” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences (DX). Our team creates world-class immersive digital experiences for the Company’s premier vacation brands including Disney’s Parks & Resorts worldwide, Disney Cruise Line, Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, and Disney Vacation Club.

The Lead Software Engineer role is for our Search team, building out and supporting site search solutions for our biggest brands, helping millions of guests find the information they need to have the best Parks experience possible.

The Lead Software Engineer applies practical knowledge of development and engineering to conceive, design, develop, test, and implement software fixes, enhancements, components, and/or new software systems and applications of moderate to high complexity. The Lead Software Engineer owns design and development and drives development of components through their own and subordinate engineers’ work. The Lead Software Engineer provides technical guidance and acts as a point of escalation and technical expert. The Lead Software Engineer designs and develops highly scalable software systems and applications.

Primary Responsibilities:

Owns the design and development of our Search software platform including AI-powered search; responsible for software fixes, enhancements, components, capabilities, and/or new software systems and applications
Keeps informed on the rapidly changing AI space, champions new ideas to product partners and leadership, and incorporates new features into the Search platform that directly improve Guest experiences
Drives development of software through own and subordinate engineers' work
Develops technical solutions that meet specifications and that impact future developments
Executes assigned capability level software development projects and major fixes using new or existing technologies
Develops specifications for assigned components, projects or fixes
Leads programming, testing and debugging of applications or fixes to existing applications
Creates protocols, documentation and tools for installation and maintenance
Sets the architectural direction for software development projects
Designs specific components for assigned projects, developing specifications for each
Designs, develops, manages, creates and maintains technical components and templates
Codes against front-end technology stack and leads end-to-end troubleshooting
Interacts and coordinates deliverables with other technical groups in the organization
Executes assigned capability level projects using new or existing technologies
Reviews or troubleshoots and performs testing
Conceives and sets the architectural direction for development projects
Designs the component tasks of assigned projects, developing specifications for each
Serves as a high-level technical resource and “go-to” person for less experienced developers, providing technical guidance and oversight
Leads team members in problem analysis and issue resolution
Recommends improvements to processes, technology, and interfaces that improve the effectiveness of the team
Work with Product, Creative, and Technology partners to develop web applications
Engineer solutions, code web applications, resolve defects, performance tune, and deploy code
Participate in team scrums and other agile process/ceremony

Qualifications:

Expert level skills with at least one enterprise search platform such as Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, or Solr
Experience with AI concepts and ecosystems, especially in the context of search, such as vector databases and embeddings, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), prompt engineering, agentic design, retrieval and generation metrics and evaluation, and guardrails
7+ years of progressively related experience in design, development, and implementation of highly scalable, high-volume software systems and components, client-facing web applications, and major Internet-oriented applications and systems
Experience with Java development frameworks & tools, such as JetBrains and Eclipse
Experience with Java, Spring, Splunk, Swagger/OpenAPI, and REST

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience with current Spring versions
Experience with DevOps, toolchains, pipelines, Git, and bundling tools
Experience with Cloud providers such as AWS and GCP, and their serverless offerings
Experience with Angular, Flutter, and/or other modern app/web development frameworks
Experience with TypeScript, Python, and/or other development languages
Experience with LaunchDarkly, Harness, and/or GitOps

Required Education:

Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems or related equivalent experience.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree in computer science, Information Systems or related equivalent experience.

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Glendale, CA/Anaheim, CA is $152,200 - $204,100 per year and in Seattle, WA is $159,500 - $213,900 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.

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About Disney Experiences:

Disney Experiences brings the magic of Disney stories and franchises to life through theme parks, resorts, cruise ships, unique vacation experiences, products and more around the world. Disney shines in the travel industry with six resort destinations in the United States, Europe and Asia; a top-rated cruise line; a popular vacation ownership program; and an award-winning guided family adventure business. Plus, Disney's global consumer products operations include the world's leading licensing business; the world's largest children's publishing brands; one of the world's largest licensors of games across all platforms; and Disney store locations around the world and on the web.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise that includes three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney’s stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

This position is with Walt Disney Attractions Technology LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Experiences.

Walt Disney Attractions Technology LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military or veteran status, medical condition, genetic information or disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. 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.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION FOR EMPLOYMENT APPLICATIONS

The Walt Disney Company and its Affiliated Companies are Equal Employment Opportunity employers and welcome all job seekers including individuals with disabilities and veterans with disabilities. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or apply for a position, visit the Disney candidate disability accommodations FAQs. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.

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