Distinguished Product Software Engineer

Distinguished Product Software 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.

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.

We're seeking a Distinguished Engineer to define and deliver state‑of‑the‑art platforms and ML‑driven experiences for ESPN (Sports), ABC News (News), and our cross‑cutting Developer Platform. You'll be the technical visionary and hands‑on architect who connects models, data, and systems into durable, scalable products that move engagement and retention, while setting technical standards across teams and mentoring senior engineers. You'll partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Data Science to translate strategy into measurable consumer and platform outcomes.

Responsibilities:

• Guide technical strategy and vision for Sports, News and developer platform, driving innovation and integration across teams.
• Drive system stability and reliability by implementing robust monitoring, automated alerting, and proactive incident response strategies to minimize downtime and ensure consistent performance.
• Architect for global scale and cost—optimize latency, availability, throughput, and observability; ensure the overall system is coherent and evolvable.
• Elevate platform standards for APIs, coding practices, CI/CD, model monitoring, governance, and responsible AI so teams ship faster with higher quality.
• Mentor and multiply senior/staff/principal engineers; drive cross‑alliance design reviews and decision records; cultivate a culture of innovation and learning.
• Influence roadmaps and OKRs across Sports, News, and Developer Platform; align investment with the highest‑leverage opportunities.
• Partner with product & editorial to translate live‑sports moments, breaking‑news dynamics, and evergreen discovery into ML problems with clear success metrics.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronic Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience
• 15+ years building large‑scale consumer systems
• Experience at technology companies known for advanced AI capabilities and large-scale consumer-facing products
• Exceptional communication skills, including the ability to simplify complex technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• Wide-ranging experience covering everything from infrastructure to native applications.
• Ability to dive deep technically while holding the end‑to‑end architecture
• Demonstrated track record setting engineering standards and leading cross‑functional initiatives at org scale.
• Advanced proficiency in API design, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native infrastructure.
• Experience managing technical roadmaps and aligning cross-functional teams to organizational objectives.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Background with sports, news, or event‑centric products and their scale/traffic patterns.
• Proven ability to define and govern platform‑wide standards and influence alliance‑level
• Demonstrated success in mentoring and developing senior engineering talent across multiple teams.
• Experience machine learning to drive user engagement and retention in large-scale consumer platforms.

How Success Will Be Measured:

• Contribution to org‑level OKRs via leadership, guidance, and execution.
• Engagement & retention lift
• Reliability & efficiency improvements
• Adoption of platform standards with demonstrated velocity/quality improvements

The hiring range for this position in California is $304,900 to $408,900 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.