Lead Software Engineer
Company: The Walt Disney Company
Location: Glendale
Posted on: April 1, 2026
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Job Description:
Job Posting Title: Lead Software Engineer Req ID: 10142064 Job
Description: 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. Ad Platforms
is responsible for Disney’s industry-leading ad technology and
products – driving advertising performance, innovation, and value
in Disney’s sports, news, and entertainment content, across all
media platforms. As part of ad platform engineering, the
programmatic teams build and maintain Disney’s programmatic
advertising suite of products and services that comprise Disney's
Real-time Ad Exchange (DRAX). DRAX is an award-winning, proprietary
SSP that enables the configuration of programmatic deals and
integrates programmatic demand from multiple third-party sources
into the Disney ad server in real time. As a Lead Software
Engineer, you will apply your deep technical knowledge and skills
to help us deliver scalable, performant, maintainable, loosely
coupled, encapsulated, and testable software and systems. Daily,
you should bring: A willingness and desire to effectively
communicate and collaborate across teams and systems Demonstrated
project ownership Guidance and mentorship on system and API design,
as well as implementation best practices such as microservice
encapsulation and loose coupling A passion for mentoring, learning,
and adapting to a very dynamic and fast-paced environment. A proven
ability to work with product teams to translate requirements into
well-defined technical implementations, as well as the ability to
define technical and operational metrics to measure system health A
keen eye for potential optimizations and enhancements Kindness and
pragmatic optimism A deep understanding of Java and the Software
Development Lifecycle. Responsibilities: Holistic understanding of
the team’s domain and serving as a point of contact for
stakeholders Leading by example, supporting their peers, and
striving to improve code and design towards more scalable, clean,
and decoupled implementations Facilitate discussions and drive
resolution, making sure outcomes are clear and well-communicated
Designing, implementing, and testing solutions to various
engineering problems in a high-throughput, low-latency
microservices environment Understanding and use of automated tools
(AI) while adhering to company policy Reading and understanding
product user stories, translating them into actionable tasks, and
leading the team through their execution Improve system
observability by implementing comprehensive metrics, monitoring,
and alerting solutions. Available for On-Call rotations based on
the team’s escalation policy and support schedule Basic
Qualifications: BS or MS in Computer Science / Engineering or
relevant work experience. 7 years of software engineering
experience. Strong foundation in computer science principles,
including data structures and algorithms. Advanced proficiency with
Java, including but not limited to understanding memory management,
multi-threading, profiling, thread pools, connection pools, and
HTTP protocols. Demonstrable analytical / problem-solving skills.
Great communication, collaboration skills, and a strong teamwork
ethic with both technical and non-technical audiences. Experience
with: SpringBoot and related Spring projects. Non-relational
database technologies like DynamoDB. Caching datastores such as
Redis, ValKey, or MemCache. Data Streaming Mechanisms such as
Apache Kafka and/or Kinesis. Cloud platforms such as AWS. Modern
DevOps tools such as Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes.
Microservice architecture. Preferred Qualifications: Domain
knowledge in the Ad Tech industry. Domain knowledge in programmatic
advertising Additional Information: Engineers are expected to be in
the office four days a week. The specific location depends on the
team’s location and the hiring manager’s input. The hiring range
for this position in Glendale, California is $155,700 to $208,700
per year and Santa Monica, California is $155,700 to $208,700 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. Job Posting Segment: Ad Platforms Job
Posting Primary Business: AP - Engineering Primary Job Posting
Category: Software Engineer Employment Type: Full time Primary
City, State, Region, Postal Code: Glendale, CA, USA Alternate City,
State, Region, Postal Code: USA - CA - 2450 Broadway Date Posted:
2026-03-27
Keywords: The Walt Disney Company, Chandler , Lead Software Engineer, IT / Software / Systems , Glendale, Arizona
