Principal Software Engineer
About The Position
Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization focused on building and advancing the technological backbone for Disney’s media business. The team combines technology with creativity to create world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive innovation and scalability. This role is within the Core Media Technology (CMT) team, which is a Research and Advanced Development team specializing in video and audio processing. CMT focuses on optimizing media processing, developing new media codecs, creating quality and performance assessment frameworks, and conducting innovative media R&D to enhance future platform capabilities for velocity, scale, and efficiency, as well as redefining storytelling through innovative media experiences.
Requirements
- Minimum of 10 years of experience in a related field.
- Deep expertise in video coding standards such as AV1, AV2, AVC, HEVC, VVC.
- Strong algorithm background for both traditional block-based and emerging neural network-based video coding tools.
- Strong background in applying deep learning techniques to video processing tasks (enhancement, understanding, coding, analysis).
- Proven track record of IP generation.
- In-depth understanding and experience with multimedia stack (formats, encoders/decoders, playback/players), multimedia frameworks, and video coding/processing methods.
- Proven track record of success and demonstrable experience in research or advanced development in video coding/media processing or adjacent fields (video quality, computer vision, computer graphics).
- Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 10+ years of directly related industry experience in video codecs.
Nice To Haves
- Knowledge and experience with C/C++ and Python.
- Extensive experience in deploying and optimizing AI/ML models and frameworks, including state-of-the-art latent variable generative models and optimization for finite precision operations.
- Applied knowledge of Media Metadata and Processing.
- Applied knowledge of ABR algorithms and transport formats.
- Knowledge of gStreamer Media Framework.
- Experience with building web-apps/dashboards for data visualization.
- Experience with working with Dockers.
- Web service development, REST APIs, XML/JSON.
- Release management, CD/CI tools, Git/GitHub.
- Experience with high load, highly scalable and distributed applications.
Responsibilities
- Conduct research and development for future generation image and video coding, particularly through the application of ML/AI methods.
- Participate in and represent Disney at AOM, and connect with academic research groups, conferences, and standards bodies like MPEG, IETF, and VQEG.
- Conduct innovative research and advanced development involving advanced computer vision algorithms and applied ML/AI techniques for media enhancement, understanding, analysis, compression, and storytelling.
- Perform multidisciplinary research and implementation in video technologies, including video processing, encoding, and E2E video streaming for live and on-demand use cases.
- Design video algorithms and software workflows to achieve velocity, scale, and efficiency for media platform optimization.
- Act as a thought leader and technical domain expert, driving architectural innovation and significant IP generation internally and at the standards level.
- Influence strategy and represent the organization in technical discussions.
- Drive major technical advancements by working with senior leaders.
- Collaborate with global CMT team resources in Zurich, Bangalore, the US, and Beijing.
Benefits
- Full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits.
- Bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
