Senior Software Engineer - Data Foundation Platforms

Senior Software Engineer - Data Foundation Platforms

Location : Santa Monica, California, United States

Business : Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

Date posted : Oct. 19, 2025

Job Summary

Technology is at the heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology (DEEP&T) 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.

Commerce, Data & Identity (CDI) provides the core product management functions for areas crucial to Disney’s media businesses. These include initiatives and products that power digital commerce, identity, and growth, as well as those that reach uniquely across The Walt Disney Company enterprise, such as messaging and privacy, among others. Additionally, it is responsible for the data engineering, science, and products for Disney Entertainment & ESPN, along with their interconnection with other parts of The Walt Disney Company.

About The Role

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Data Foundation Platform team. We build and provide cloud platform and services that are used by data engineering teams and data scientists across Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology, particularly in processing data related to our streaming and web‑based businesses (e.g., data from Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, etc.). The successful candidate will have a passion for technology and solid coding skills. Knowledge of specific technologies may be helpful but is less important than an ability to learn quickly. We value team members who aren’t afraid to dive deep when required, think for themselves, and have great communication and teamwork skills.

We’re seeking a skilled Back‑End Software Engineer to help design and build secure, scalable, and high‑performance systems that power Disney’s technology ecosystem. As part of a collaborative engineering team, you’ll contribute to building core backend services that support critical infrastructure and applications used across Disney’s diverse portfolio—including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, and more.

You’ll work on systems that require thoughtful design, robust implementation, and close integration with internal platforms and services. This is a great opportunity to be part of foundational engineering work that supports millions of users and enables secure, reliable, and automated operations across a wide range of environments. The ideal candidate is a strong backend engineer with excellent problem‑solving skills, a drive to learn, and a passion for building well‑engineered solutions. While familiarity with specific technologies is a plus, curiosity, adaptability, and a desire to work in a collaborative, fast‑paced environment are even more important.

Contribute to maintaining, updating, and expanding existing Data platform projects written in Spark, Python, and Scala.

Design, and code shared libraries that abstract complex business logic to allow consistent functionality across all data pipelines in the Data organization.

Build and evolve secure systems across cloud and on‑prem environments, integrating with a wide variety of external systems.

Build and maintain functionality across a range of areas – backend services, front‑end UI, APIs, and command‑line tools.

Drive operational excellence through observability, alerting, and reliability practices.

Be an active participant and advocate of agile / scrum ceremonies to collaborate and improve processes for our team.

Engage with and understand our customers, forming relationships that allow us to understand and prioritize both innovative new offerings and incremental platform improvements.

Maintain detailed documentation of your work and changes to support data quality and data governance requirements.

BS / BA in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a closely related field.

5+ years software engineering experience in developing large projects.

Strong algorithmic problem‑solving expertise and fundamental programming skills.

Proficient in Data Engineering technologies like Airflow, Spark, Databricks, Snowflake, OpenSearch, Neptune.

Hands‑on experience with modern architectural paradigms such as microservices, event‑driven systems, and containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).

Solid understanding of software design patterns and system design principles, with the ability to both apply best practices and critically assess them when needed.

Proficiency with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, with a preference for AWS experience.

Strong communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across technical and non‑technical teams.

Passion to explore new technologies and participate in proof of concepts.

Demonstrated curiosity and enthusiasm for exploring new technologies through hands‑on experimentation or proof‑of‑concept projects.

Strong interest in tackling complex, fast‑evolving technology or business challenges.

Experience designing and building internet‑scale platforms or systems with high availability and performance requirements.

Contributions to open‑source projects or a portfolio of personal work (e.g., GitHub) that reflects your technical interests and abilities.

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science or related discipline or its equivalent.

#DISNEYTECH #CDI

The hiring range for this position in California is $141,900 to $190,300 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.

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.

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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