Software Engineer II - ESPN/Sports

Overview

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.

Job Summary

We’re seeking an experienced Software Engineer to join the Watch Experience team, responsible for powering the APIs and infrastructure used across client platforms—tvOS, Web, Mobile, Smart TVs, and Game Consoles—for ESPN, Disney+, Hulu, and more. You’ll work on the systems that deliver content metadata, playback configurations, personalization, and curated experiences at scale. Our stack includes Java Spring Boot APIs, HAProxy, AWS ECS, Angular apps, and observability tools like DataDog, CloudWatch, and New Relic.

This is a backend-leaning full stack role with opportunities to contribute across API design, system architecture, CI/CD, DevOps practices, observability, and client performance.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Build, maintain, and scale backend APIs (Java Spring Boot) that serve personalized content experiences to millions of users

• Collaborate with client app teams (e.g., tvOS, Roku, Android TV, mobile, Web) to ensure seamless API integration and consistent playback experiences

• Enhance infrastructure resiliency across live sporting events and major media moments by participating in LiveOps and OnCall rotations

• Contribute to the development of internal tools and dashboards (Angular/JavaScript) to support monitoring, content curation, and system health

• Work with CDN, proxy, and cache layers including HAProxy, Varnish, and others to optimize performance and availability

• Participate in production triage and root cause analysis using observability tooling such as DataDog, New Relic, AWS CloudWatch, and custom logs

• Help automate CI/CD pipelines using TeamCity and AWS for ECS and cloud deployments

• Champion best practices around alerting, auto-scaling, canary deployments, and system redundancy

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field—or equivalent experience

• 3+ years experience developing backend systems or APIs in Java (Spring Boot preferred)

• Familiarity with cloud-native development, particularly in AWS (ECS, Lambda, CloudFront, S3, etc.)

• Hands-on experience with monitoring and observability stacks (DataDog, New Relic, CloudWatch)

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git, build systems (e.g., TeamCity, Jenkins), and containerized deployments

• Strong understanding of REST APIs, caching strategies, and performance optimization

• Comfortable working in high-stakes environments with live event traffic and tight SLAs

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with frontend development using Angular or similar frameworks for internal tools

• Experience with HAProxy, Varnish, CDN configuration, and edge caching strategies

• Exposure to media/streaming workflows (e.g., content metadata, playback services, personalization APIs)

• Experience working on large-scale distributed systems in high-availability environments

• Comfortable in fast-paced environments with agile ceremonies, triage sessions, and cross-team coordination

• Strong communication skills with a passion for collaborative problem-solving

Additional Details

• This role is part of our LiveOps and OnCall rotation, especially during major sports and media events

The hiring range for this position in Los Angeles is $114,900 to $154,100 per year, in New York or Seattle is $120,300 to $161,300 and in San Francisco is $125,800 to $168,700 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.