Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

Job ID 10125651 Location New York, New York, United States / San Francisco, California, United States / Seattle, Washington, United States / Morrisville, North Carolina, United States Business Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology Date posted Nov. 17, 2025

Job Summary :

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 platforms

Collaborate with application development teams, services engineering teams and product management to help understand and explain device limitations and requirements

Ensure 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 approaches

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 or mentoring to developers on our team

Hold our team accountable to high development standards

Required Education, Experience / Skills / Training :

Minimum of 7 years of related work experience

Long record of full software development lifecycle experience

Fluent in C and C++ or Rust

Strong understanding of Git and branching strategies

Willing to learn Rust

Experience with Windows and Xbox development

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

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

Preferred :

Rust

Experience with Microsoft Media Foundation (MF)

Experience in Streaming technologies, 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

Embedded and Cross-Platform Development

Experience with one or more of CMake, Cargo, Gradle, MSBuild

Experience using Jenkins, Docker and Artifactory

Embedded operating system experience

Experience developing for other gaming consoles (e.g. Playstation, Switch), and / or Android devices (e.g. FireTV), or similar

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY and Seattle, WA is $163,100 to $218,700 per year and in San Francisco, CA is $170,500 to $228,600 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.

About Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology :

At Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology, we’re blending imagination and innovation to reimagine the ways people experience and engage with the world’s most beloved stories and products. Our work is wide-ranging and deeply sophisticated. We create amazing experiences, transform the future of media, and build products and platforms that enable the connection between people everywhere and the stories and sports they love.

Disney’s ability to marry world‑class technology with one‑of‑a‑kind creativity makes us unique. It is at the heart of our past, present, and future. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers.

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 and ESPN Product & Technology .

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, email Candidate.Accommodations@Disney.com with your request. This email address is not for general employment inquiries or correspondence. 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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