Principal Software Engineer

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 Disney’s 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 maximize 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.

• Building the future of Disney’s media business: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power Disney’s 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 execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Media Engineering builds the software and systems which prepare, deliver, and play streaming media content across the Disney media brands including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, and ABC. Our objective is to provide the best playback experience in the industry to our viewers.
 

Media Engineering handles video, audio, and metadata for normalization, processing, and packaging - supporting operator tools and automation for a scalable workflow. We build logic across both players and back-end services to measure, control, and optimize playback across our stack. We embrace unconventional thinking and are passionate about contributing to the Walt Disney Company’s direct-to-consumer experience.

Our native player engineering team is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to define the player architecture that helps us deliver excellent streaming experiences for Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, and other Disney brands as a developer and architect of our client player. Our team is responsible for playback across several devices including gaming consoles and set top boxes. You will have the opportunity to lead in the design and implementation of our cross-platform C/C++ and Rust player that runs Disney+ and Hulu on these devices.

We’re looking for an experienced C/C++ or Rust engineer who has video player and cross platform development experience. You should have a passion for coding and debugging hard problems, and an eagerness to help us deliver seamless video to our subscribers.  As a Principal Software Engineer, you will get to own large features, lead the technical direction of our work, and mentor and provide technical expertise to other engineers. You will work closely with other technical teams in the application layer and backend video services to deliver features.

This opening is for s USA-based employee in one of our tech hubs including New York City, Seattle, Morrisville, NC, San Francisco, and Santa Monica and Glendale.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain our Rust and C/C++ player that drives our streaming experience
• Optimize our player to perform well for resource constrained platforms
• Create and review architecture and designs for our team’s projects
• Own large and complex features
• Maintain a strong understanding of our code to identify, research and address issues
• Collaborate with application development teams, services engineering teams and product management to help understand and explain device limitations and requirements
• Lead in strategies to ensure the quality and stability of our deployments, including testing strategies and telemetry approaches

• Develop our project’s build system and continuous integration system as needed
• Provide technical expertise to developers on our team
• Hold our team accountable to high development standards

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of full software development lifecycle experience
• Fluent in C/C++ and/or Rust
• Extensive experience in embedded software development
• Extensive experience in video playback technologies
• Experience developing and optimizing multi-threaded applications
• Experience using build runners / compilation tools for multi-platform projects
• Strong individual contributor with a drive to learn and patience to teach others
• Great communication and collaboration skills and a strong teamwork ethic
• BS or BA in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field or equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Rust language expertise
• Experience in Streaming technologies strongly preferred, including:
  • HLS (preferred) or DASH
  • DRM technologies like Playready or Widevine
  • Adaptive Bitrate Streaming Algorithms
  • Caption and subtitle formats such as CEA-608 / 708
  • Codecs AVC, HEVC, AAC, EAC3
• Cross-Platform Development
• Embedded operating system experience
• Experience developing for gaming consoles (e.g. Playstation, Switch), Android devices (e.g.FireTV), or similar devices
• Familiarity with set-top box development and specialized SoCs from manufacturers like Broadcom, MediaTek, etc.
• Experience implementing advertising technologies, including VAST, VPAID, etc.

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY and Seattle, WA is $193,100.00 to $258,900.00 per year, in Glendale, CA and Santa Monica, CA $184,300.00 to $247,100.00 per year, and in San Francisco CA is $201,900.00 to $270,700.00 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.