Principal Software Engineer

What You’ll Do

Architecture & Technical Strategy

• Define and drive end-to-end solution architecture across Live, Linear, and VOD streaming workflows.
• Establish architectural patterns that unify media ingest, processing, metadata, ads, distribution, and playback ecosystems.
• Lead cross-domain design for integrations with Ad platforms, metadata services, rights systems, and client applications.
• Contribute to long-term technical strategy, ensuring scalability, resiliency, and cost efficiency across the media supply chain.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Engineering, Product, Program Management, and stakeholders teams to deliver cohesive platform solutions.
• Influence technical direction across multiple teams and organizations without direct authority.
• Lead architecture reviews, drive alignment, and resolve complex cross-system challenges.

System Design & Implementation

• Design and document high-scale, distributed systems supporting millions of concurrent streams and global content distribution.
• Contribute to implementation where necessary, including prototyping, coding, and validating architectural decisions.
• Author clear architectural artifacts including solution designs, system diagrams, and technical proposals.

Operational Excellence

• Champion best practices in observability, reliability, performance optimization, and cost management.
• Guide teams in building resilient systems with strong SLAs/SLOs.
• Use metrics and data to continuously improve system performance and user experience.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Challenge existing architectures and introduce modern approaches to evolving platform capabilities.
• Stay ahead of industry trends in streaming technologies, ad tech, and media workflows.
• Drive iterative improvements across systems, workflows, and developer experience.

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant time in architecture and distributed systems design.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience
• Proven experience designing and scaling high-throughput, low-latency systems in a cloud environment.
• Strong proficiency in one or more languages such as Java, Python, or similar.
• Deep understanding of microservices architecture, event-driven systems, and API design.
• Experience with AWS or similar cloud platforms, including services such as S3, DynamoDB, Kinesis, SNS/SQS, or Kafka.
• Strong foundation in data modeling, system design, and performance optimization.
• Ability to write production-quality code and contribute hands-on when needed.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with media streaming systems, including Live, Linear, and VOD workflows.
• Knowledge of video delivery protocols (HLS, DASH), encoding/transcoding pipelines, and CDN distribution.
• Experience with media player and client integrations for video playback
• Familiarity with Ad Tech ecosystems, including SSAI, and ad decisioning systems.
• Experience working with player/client technologies across web, mobile, and connected devices.
• Exposure to machine learning applications in media workflows (e.g., content enrichment, personalization).
• Prior experience operating in a large-scale streaming platform environment.

What Sets You Apart

• You think in systems, not silos, and can connect architecture across domains.
• You balance vision with execution, capable of both defining strategy and delivering outcomes.
• You are a force multiplier, elevating teams through influence, clarity, and technical leadership.
• You are comfortable operating in ambiguity and driving alignment across complex organizations.

Product Engineering

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.

The hiring range for this position in NY, NY is $197,400 to $264,700 per year and in Santa Monica, CA is $188,400 to $252,600 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 Posting Segment:

PE - Media Engineering

Job Posting Primary Business:

PE - Media Platform - Media & Metadata Tooling

Primary Job Posting Category:

Software Engineer

Employment Type:

Full time

Primary City, State, Region, Postal Code:

New York, NY, USA

Alternate City, State, Region, Postal Code:

USA - CA - 2450 Broadway

Date Posted:

2026-05-19