Software Engineer II

Software Engineer II

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

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.

Job Summary:

Join our Business Operations engineering team as a Software Engineer and contribute directly to the development, maintenance, and evolution of our core application portfolio. In this role, you will focus on building and enhancing well-scoped components and features that support critical business workflows and customer experiences.

You will apply strong software engineering fundamentals to deliver reliable, maintainable code, owning development tasks from implementation through testing and deployment with guidance from more senior engineers. Your work will include developing and debugging component-level solutions, resolving defects, supporting owned services throughout their lifecycle, and collaborating closely with teammates and cross-functional partners such as Product Management and QA to understand requirements, contribute to technical discussions, and ensure solutions meet quality and performance standards.

Success in this role requires clear communication, a willingness to learn, and the ability to apply standard engineering practices to solve moderately complex problems, delivering dependable solutions with direct impact within your project or product area.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

Technical Execution & Skill Development:

• Develop, enhance, and maintain well-scoped software components and services with attention to code quality, reliability, performance, and security.
• Apply standard engineering practices across design, implementation, testing, debugging, and deployment, with guidance from senior engineers as needed.
• Use organization-approved development tools and practices—including, where appropriate, AI-assisted engineering tools—to accelerate delivery while maintaining full accountability for the correctness, security, and maintainability of committed code.
• Critically review proposed changes (including AI-generated or AI-assisted suggestions) for fit with established patterns, edge cases, security implications, and operational impact prior to merge and release.
• Build depth in one or two technical areas while maintaining a working understanding of the organization's core technologies, integrations, and release processes.

Execution & Impact:

• Deliver moderately complex solution components that are successfully deployed to stakeholders and internal users.
• Diagnose and resolve defects and technical issues using established tools and patterns, escalating when appropriate.
• Participate in code reviews; incorporate feedback to improve maintainability, testability, and adherence to team standards, and provide constructive review of others' work.
• Apply disciplined automated testing practices to validate behavior and regressions, particularly as change volume and iteration speed increase.
• Maintain clear technical documentation for assigned features, fixes, and components to support auditability, onboarding, and operational readiness.

Collaboration, Autonomy & Influence:

• Collaborate with peers and cross-functional partners (for example, Product Management and Quality Assurance) to clarify requirements, constraints, and acceptance criteria, and to deliver aligned solutions.
• Make routine technical decisions within defined practices, with moderate oversight from a technical lead or manager.
• Identify and communicate technical risks, dependencies, and improvement opportunities, including those related to quality, security, and sustainable development velocity.
• Support less experienced engineers through knowledge sharing and informal guidance.
• Communicate technical information clearly and professionally within the team and, as needed, to adjacent partners.

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications:

• 3+ years of professional software development experience.
• Proficiency in JavaScript and TypeScript.
• Solid understanding and production use of Node.js and API development.
• Comfort integrating with or extending a content management system (CMS).
• Familiarity with search platforms such as OpenSearch or Elasticsearch.
• Working knowledge of software testing practices and tools, including automated unit and integration testing.
• Ability to review code critically—whether authored manually or with assistance from development tools—for correctness, security, performance, and maintainability, and to own outcomes of changes merged to production.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience writing scalable, modular code with focus on maintainability and long-term supportability.
• Ability to write and optimize search queries in OpenSearch or comparable platforms.
• Exposure to Docker or containerized development environments.
• Participation in Agile or Scrum workflows.
• Experience with modern React application patterns, including data fetching and state management (for example, TanStack Query or similar).
• Experience with GraphQL client development (for example, Apollo Client) in addition to REST-based integration.
• Familiarity with observability or monitoring practices in web or service-oriented applications (for example, logging, tracing, or browser monitoring).
• Experience working effectively with AI-assisted development tools within a team context, including adherence to review, testing, and security expectations.

Experience With:

• Developing APIs with Node.js, or similar frameworks.
• Managing headless CMS content structures and user roles.
• Front-end integration with CMS content (for example, building React-based interfaces).
• Writing and tuning OpenSearch or Elasticsearch queries.
• Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines and tools (for example, GitLab CI or GitHub Actions).
• Writing unit and integration tests and using them to validate changes prior to release.

Required Education:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related technical field.

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA is $123,000.00 to $165,000.00 per year, and in Glendale, CA is $117,500.00 to $157,500.00 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.