Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer - GCI Experiences Job Description (2025)

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we're reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world's most beloved stories while also transforming our media business for the future. Whether that's evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to enhance flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney's unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

A few reasons why we think you'd love working here:

• Building the future of Disney's media: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.

• Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day - from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.

• Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

The Growth, Commerce & Identity (GCI) organization is dedicated to three business-critical areas at Disney that will help transform its media business. We build innovative and cutting-edge capabilities to drive subscriptions, engagement, and monetization across Disney's streaming and digital products. We enable the wide range of Disney brands to connect and engage with consumers through a unified identity, powered by shared services that are trustworthy and seamless to integrate with.

The Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology (DEE&T) Growth, Commerce and Identity Client Engineering organization delivers experiences across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ built on a common platform and shared technology. We are fast-paced and fast-growing organization that shares knowledge and code for initiatives throughout Disney! Our mission: Building inclusive user-centered experiences that welcome users, guiding them through a seamless journey from login to sign up, and facilitating effortless account management.

You will serve as a high level technical resource and "go-to" person, solving sophisticated technical challenges and finding opportunities to improve systems, products, and services!

Responsibilities

• Lead projects where you'll work closely with engineering and product teams to scope and distill product requirements into design and technical specifications.

• Write, maintain, standardize and enforce code quality through test driven development.

• Architect and Design implementations while providing documentation and guidance to other engineers.

• Key contributor to project needs and the evolution of the team's practices; recommending changes in development, coding, maintenance and system standards.

• Applies experiences and exercises judgment in selecting methods and techniques to identify, resolve, and develop solutions to a variety of sophisticated tasks involving architectural application changes.

• Supports and mentors senior developers through code reviews, knowledge-sharing, and technical leadership.

Basic Qualifications:

• 7+ years experience building highly scalable and performant web applications serving millions of users and requests.

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

• Experience architecting sophisticated technical changes, to knowledge-share, and get consensus for their solutions.

• Expert knowledge in Javascript, Typescript, and React.

• Proven track record to define and implement api specifications while collaborating with service teams

• Highly diligent. with the ability to see projects from beginning to end.

• Quickly learn, understand, and adapt to new technologies; identifying root causes and driving solutions to complex problems.

• Ability to support and mentor senior developers by building trust, identifying goals, encouraging, instructing, and providing constructive feedback.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Shipped production level React/Node.js application with high availability and throughput deployed to cloud platforms (e.g. AWS)

• Expert understanding of web accessibility fundamentals

• Expansive industry knowledge with regard to web standards and new technologies

Additional Information

Disney is an equal opportunity employer - Women/Cultural minority/Veteran/Disability/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity. Our goal is to create an inclusive workplace for all.

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA is $155,700.00-$208,700.00 per year and in Sa Francisco, CA is $166,800 - $223,600 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.

Job ID: 10149877

Location: Santa Monica,California

Job Posting Company: Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

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 View email address on click.appcast.io 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.