Principal Software Engineer

The Walt Disney Company • Santa Monica, NY

10d • Onsite

About The Position

We are redefining how streaming media is delivered, experienced, and scaled across a global ecosystem. From live and linear streaming to VOD workflows, advertising integrations, metadata platforms, and playback clients, our mission is to build a cohesive, high-performing media platform that powers world-class viewer experiences. We are seeking a Principal Software Architect to operate at the intersection of strategy and execution, shaping end-to-end solutions across the Media Engineering ecosystem. This role is not confined to a single domain. You will architect systems that span ingest, processing, orchestration, distribution, and playback across platforms such as Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN. This is a hands-on architecture role for a technical leader who can define vision, influence at scale, and dive deep into code and design when needed.

Requirements

• 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.

Nice To Haves

• 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal