Principal Software Engineer

The Walt Disney Company•Morrisville, NC

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Technology is central to Disney's operations, and Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization dedicated to building and advancing the technological infrastructure for Disney's media business worldwide. The team combines technology with creativity to develop world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive innovation and scalability. This role is within the Core Media Technology (CMT) team, part of DEEP&T’s Media Engineering organization. CMT is a Research and Advanced Development team focused on video and audio processing, driving innovative enhancements for live and on-demand video streaming delivery. The work involves optimizing media processing, introducing new media codecs, developing quality and performance assessment frameworks, and conducting innovative media R&D for future platform capabilities to achieve velocity, scale, and efficiency, while redefining storytelling through innovative media experiences. The Principal Software Engineer will conduct multidisciplinary research and development in video streaming for both live and on-demand use cases. This role offers the opportunity to participate in multimedia standardizations (AOM, MPEG, IETF, VQEG) and engage with academic research groups and conferences. The engineer will design media processing algorithms and software workflows to optimize the media platform for velocity, scale, and efficiency. Collaboration with cross-functional teams, including studios, streaming backend, streaming delivery, client, and product teams, is essential for investigating, developing, and adopting cutting-edge technologies and specifications into production. The position involves innovative research and advanced development using computer vision algorithms and applied ML/AI techniques for tasks such as media enhancement, understanding, analysis, compression, and enhancing storytelling. As a Principal Engineer, the individual's technical expertise will influence various codebases, ensure compatibility of practices, drive technical standards, and contribute to architectural best practices across the organization. Key responsibilities include leading coordination for large projects, facilitating cross-team collaboration, owning complex and innovative projects spanning multiple teams, and leading documentation, architecture, and stakeholder engagement, all while driving innovation and technical strategy. The CMT team is global, with resources in Zurich, Bangalore, throughout the US, and in Beijing, requiring coordination and collaboration across these locations.

Requirements

Minimum of 10 years of related work experience.
Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
Deep Expertise in video streaming technologies (e.g. codecs, streaming packagers and distribution, playback algorithms, etc).
Strong background in applying deep learning techniques to media processing tasks.
In-depth understanding and experience with multimedia frameworks.
A proven track record of success and demonstrable experience in research and advanced development in video coding, media processing or adjacent fields.
A proven track record of IP generation.

Nice To Haves

Expertise in video coding standards such as AV1, AV2, AVC, HEVC, VVC.
Knowledge and experience in C/C++.
Knowledge and experience with Python.
Applied knowledge of Media Metadata and Processing.
gStreamer Media Framework Experience.
Experience deploying and optimizing AI/ML models and frameworks.
Experience with building web-apps/dashboards for data visualization.
Experience with working with Dockers.
Web service development, REST APIs, XML/JSON.
Release management, continuous integration, Git/GitHub.
High load, highly scalable and distributed applications.

Responsibilities

Conduct multidisciplinary research and development in video streaming for both live and on-demand use cases.
Participate in multimedia standardizations such as AOM, MPEG, IETF, and VQEG, and connect with academic research groups and conferences.
Design media processing algorithms and software workflows for achieving velocity, scale, and efficiency to further optimize the media platform.
Collaborate cross-functionally with teams such as studios, streaming backend, streaming delivery, client, and product teams to investigate, develop and adopt cutting-edge technologies and specifications into production.
Be part of a team conducting innovative research and advanced development involving advanced computer vision algorithms and applied ML/AI techniques to address tasks such as media enhancement, understanding, analysis, compression, and enhancing storytelling through innovative media experiences.
Influence various codebases ensuring compatibility of practices.
Drive technical standards contributing to architectural best practices across the organization.
Lead coordination for large projects and facilitate cross-team collaboration.
Own complex and innovative projects that span multiple teams and components.
Lead documentation, architecture, and stakeholder engagement.
Regularly drive innovation and technical strategy.
Coordinate and collaborate with a global CMT team with resources from Zurich, Bangalore, throughout the US and in Beijing.