Lead Software Engineer - Frontend

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.

Consumer Software Engineering is all about the end user. The team leads all front-end development for the consumer-facing apps that house Disney’s portfolio of brands. For example, if you’re watching Disney+ on your Apple TV – and the interface is engaging, adaptable, and magnificent – you have this team to thank. The list of platforms this team handles includes: iOS & Android; Smart TVs like Samsung, LG, Chromecast, Roku, & Amazon; game consoles like Xbox and PlayStation; and desktop & mobile web browsers.

As a member of our DE&ET's web team you’ll get to build exciting experiences on our core streaming product to engage our customers and help them discover the best Disney stories to watch and enjoy with their family!! You will get to partner with several teams to help lead product features from ideation to building and shipping them with quality. You will be surrounded by colleagues eager to help you succeed and be part of an ambitious, impactful, rewarding culture.

The Lead Software Engineer will serve as the technical resource and “go-to” person, solving sophisticated technical challenges across teams, and finding opportunities to improve systems, products, and services!

Responsibilities

• Lead large initiatives and help architect and develop core site functionality using JavaScript (ES6+) HTML and CSS.
• Work on a modern stack including React, TypeScript, NodeJS, and Amazon Web Services.
• Ideate with Product and Senior Leadership on potential new features and research applicable technologies and solutions.
• Use industry standard methodologies to continually increase performance and scalability.
• Setting up golden standards for code quality and reviewing pull requests to ensure product and design specifications are met.
• Mentor and facilitate growth of senior engineers partnering with Engineering management.
• Maintain and support production streaming applications at global scale.

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.
• Mature understanding of front-end web development technologies and principles (i.e. JavaScript (ES6+) HTML, CSS, React, TypeScript, NodeJS, and Amazon Web Services).
• Experience working within a modern JavaScript workflow through technologies such as: Git, CSS Preprocessors, Styled Components, Single Page Application frameworks and Module Bundlers (Webpack, etc.).
• Proven track record to research solutions to complex problems and being able to work across multiple teams to implement solutions.
• Highly accountable with the ability to lead projects from beginning to end; designing workflows, breaking down and implementing tasks.
• Writes well-documented, clear, and high quality code with tests.
• 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:

• Experience with streaming video, large data applications, and analytics suites.
• Knowledge of SEO, accessibility, observability and web performance metrics.
• Experience integrating with REST and/or GraphQL APIs.

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA and Bristol, CT is $152,200 to 204,100 per year, in Seattle, WA and New York, NY is $159,500 to $213,900 per year, and in San Francisco, CA is $166,800 to $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.