Principal Software Engineer

Job ID 10106205 Location New York, New York, United States / Santa Monica, California, United States / Glendale, California, United States / San Francisco, California, United States / Seattle, Washington, United States / Morrisville, North Carolina, United States Business Disney Entertainment Date posted Mar. 04, 2025

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Job Summary:

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we’re reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world’s most beloved stories while also transforming Disney’s media business for the future. Whether that’s evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to maximize flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney’s unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Building the future of Disney’s media business: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power Disney’s media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day – from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.
Innovation: We develop and execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Media Engineering builds the software and systems which prepare, deliver, and play streaming media content across the Disney media brands including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, and ABC. Our objective is to provide the best playback experience in the industry to our viewers.

Media Engineering handles video, audio, and metadata for normalization, processing, and packaging - supporting operator tools and automation for a scalable workflow. We build logic across both players and back-end services to measure, control, and optimize playback across our stack. We embrace unconventional thinking and are passionate about contributing to the Walt Disney Company’s direct-to-consumer experience.

Our native player engineering team is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to define the player architecture that helps us deliver excellent streaming experiences for Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, and other Disney brands as a developer and architect of our client player. Our team is responsible for playback across several devices including gaming consoles and set top boxes. You will have the opportunity to lead in the design and implementation of our cross-platform C/C++ and Rust player that runs Disney+ and Hulu on these devices.

We’re looking for an experienced C/C++ or Rust engineer who has video player and cross platform development experience. 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 Principal Software 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 s USA-based employee in one of our tech hubs including New York City, Seattle, Morrisville, NC, San Francisco, and Santa Monica and Glendale.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain our Rust and C/C++ player that drives our streaming experience
Optimize our player to perform well for resource constrained platforms
Create and review architecture and designs for our team’s projects
Own large and complex features
Maintain a strong understanding of our code to identify, research and address issues
Collaborate with application development teams, services engineering teams and product management to help understand and explain device limitations and requirements
Lead in strategies to ensure the quality and stability of our deployments, including testing strategies and telemetry approaches

Develop our project’s build system and continuous integration system as needed
Provide technical expertise to developers on our team
Hold our team accountable to high development standards

Basic Qualifications

10+ years of full software development lifecycle experience
Fluent in C/C++ and/or Rust
Extensive experience in embedded software development
Extensive experience in video playback technologies
Experience developing and optimizing multi-threaded applications
Experience using build runners / compilation tools for multi-platform projects
Strong individual contributor with a drive to learn and patience to teach others
Great communication and collaboration skills and a strong teamwork ethic
BS or BA in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field or equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications

Rust language expertise
Experience in Streaming technologies strongly preferred, including:
- HLS (preferred) or DASH
- DRM technologies like Playready or Widevine
- Adaptive Bitrate Streaming Algorithms
- Caption and subtitle formats such as CEA-608 / 708
- Codecs AVC, HEVC, AAC, EAC3
Cross-Platform Development
Embedded operating system experience
Experience developing for gaming consoles (e.g. Playstation, Switch), Android devices (e.g.FireTV), or similar devices
Familiarity with set-top box development and specialized SoCs from manufacturers like Broadcom, MediaTek, etc.
Experience implementing advertising technologies, including VAST, VPAID, etc.

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY and Seattle, WA is $193,100.00 to $258,900.00 per year, in Glendale, CA and Santa Monica, CA $184,300.00 to $247,100.00 per year, and in San Francisco CA is $201,900.00 to $270,700.00 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 Entertainment:

At Disney Corporate you can see how the businesses behind the Company’s powerful brands come together to create the most innovative, far-reaching and admired entertainment company in the world. As a member of a corporate team, you’ll work with world-class leaders driving the strategies that keep The Walt Disney Company at the leading edge of entertainment. See and be seen by other innovative thinkers as you enable the greatest storytellers in the world to create memories for millions of families around the globe.

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 Disney Streaming Technology LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Entertainment.

Disney Streaming 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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