Principal Media Streaming Engineer

Principal Media Streaming Engineer

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.

Are you passionate about video encoding technologies and building tools that drive operational excellence? As a Principal Media Streaming Engineer at Disney, you will be part of the Media Delivery team, which is responsible for the entire video encoding supply chain from content acquisition to delivery, consisting of an agile and responsive team of engineers that design, build, and support the systems and workflows powering our on-demand video streaming products. The department's responsibilities provide round-the-clock support for these products, ensuring proper functionality across all platforms and front-end playback scenarios. The Media Delivery team partners with development teams on design and implementation of key functionality for video encoding systems, builds comprehensive tooling and reporting solutions, and ensures that overall encoding capacity meets the needs of all partners while optimizing resources to the fullest.

You would join a diverse and networked team that collaborates on initiatives that drive streaming video technology to the next level. What makes us different from other media streaming groups? We use innovation and technical experience to transform projects into experiences that can directly impact the happiness of our Subscribers.

This is a lead technical position on the Media Delivery VOD team, responsible for designing, implementing, and enhancing the encoding and processing workflows for Disney's on-demand video products. It is an excellent opportunity for someone looking to advance their career in the VOD streaming space working in a dynamic, fast-paced, and sophisticated technical environment.

You will be a lead contributor, and guiding the strategic vision, for the VOD encoding, processing, and tooling ecosystem. You will design and deploy innovative solutions that improve operational efficiency, provide actionable insights through metrics, and drive continuous improvement across our production environments. The ideal candidate would be an expert in VOD processing technologies with a passion for building automation and tooling.

On any one day you might:

• Design and build automation tools for metrics reporting, dashboards, and operational insights.
• Develop automation solutions to augment and streamline operational workflows.
• Drive initiatives to enhance the VOD processing ecosystem's reliability and performance.
• Create scripts and applications that reduce manual intervention and improve efficiency.
• Build comprehensive monitoring and alerting systems for VOD processing pipelines.
• Partner with development teams on feature requests, troubleshooting, and system optimizations.
• Evaluate and integrate new encoding technologies and methodologies.
• Provide training to internal team members.
• Documentation of workflows and standard operating procedures.
• Provide external teams with guidance related to VOD encoding and processing workflows.

Responsibilities :

• Drive initiatives to improve the reliability, scalability, and performance of VOD processing and the platform experience.
• Partner with development teams on feature requests, system optimizations, and architectural improvements.
• Lead proof-of-concept projects and technology evaluations to inform strategic decisions.
• Design and develop dashboards, reporting tools, and data visualization solutions that provide actionable insights into encoding throughput, error rates, and operational KPIs.
• Partner with stakeholders to define key metrics and translate business requirements into technical reporting solutions.
• Maintain and enhance existing reporting infrastructure to ensure accuracy and reliability.
• Develop automation solutions that augment and streamline day-to-day operational workflows, reducing manual intervention and improving efficiency.
• Implement monitoring, alerting, and auto-remediation systems for VOD processing infrastructure.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to team members.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Product, Engineering, and Operations to align on priorities and deliverables.
• Document workflows, standard operating procedures, and technical specifications.

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively complex related experience
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electrical Engineering, and/or equivalent work experience
• Experience designing and building VOD processing and encoding workflows.
• Experience working with on prem, and cloud based, transcoding and encoding solutions.
• Ability to work independently to solve problems in both the video and IT domains.
• Deep knowledge of video codecs and compression. (H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, AV1)
• Knowledge of audio codecs and containers. (AAC, PCM, AC-3, EAC-3, Dolby Atmos)
• Strong to advanced experience with command-line video tools like FFMPEG, MP4Box, and MediaInfo.
• Extensive knowledge of ABR/OTT technologies. (HLS, DASH, CMAF)
• Expert understanding of video fundamentals (resolution, frame rates, color spaces, HDR).
• Comfortable with Mac, Linux, and Windows environments, specifically on the command line.
• Strong communication skills.
• Advanced scripting experience. (Python, BASH, Ruby)
• Experience building automation tools, dashboards, and reporting systems.
• Experience with REST API communication, preferably programmatically (through a scripting language library).
• Experience writing technical documentation for consumption by both technical and non-technical people.
• Experience with data visualization and metrics platforms. (Grafana, Datadog, or similar)
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and containerization. (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Comfortable acting as a technical lead

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in programming with Backend and Frontend UI development and proficient with one or more general purpose programming languages (Python, Java, Javascript, etc.)
• Familiarity with front-end technologies for building internal tools. (React, Vue, or similar)
• Knowledge of quality control (QC) systems and automated content verification.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines for media workflow automation.
• Understanding of DAI workflows in an OTT environment.
• Experience with machine learning/AI.
• Knowledge of content protection and DRM systems.
• Familiarity with database technologies (SQL, NoSQL) for metrics and reporting.

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY is $163,100 to $218,700, in Santa Monica, CA is $155,700 to $208,700, and in San Francisco, CA is $170,500 to $228,600 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 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