Lead Software Engineer (C/C++ or Rust)

Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we’re reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world’s most beloved stories while also transforming our media business for the future. Whether that’s evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to enhance flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney’s unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

A few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

1. Building the future of Disney’s media: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.

2. Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day – from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.

3. Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Media Engineering is an innovative organization that is focused on providing the best possible video playback experience, art, and metadata to customers around the world, powered by exceptional technology. This strategic work requires streamlining and repurposing technology across different business and distribution channels – including streaming, linear, and theatrical – so that technology can ebb and flow across the needs of the business.

Job Summary

Our combined Disney and Hulu team is looking for hardworking team players to join the Media Engineering team, who will thrive upon the legacy of Disney and Hulu, embrace unconventional thinking, and who are passionate about contributing to The Walt Disney Company’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) experience through strategic hard work and determination.

Our team is seeking a Lead Software Engineer, Video Analytics to help us deliver excellent streaming experiences for Hulu and Disney+ as a developer of our client player. Our team is responsible for playback across several devices including gaming consoles and set-top boxes. You will have the opportunity to lead in the design and implementation of our cross-platform C/C++ and Rust player that runs Disney+ and Hulu on these devices.

We’re looking for an experienced C/C++ or Rust engineer who has video player and cross-platform development experience. You should have a passion for coding and debugging hard problems, and an eagerness to help us deliver seamless video to our subscribers. As a lead engineer, you will get to own large features, lead the technical direction of our work, and mentor and provide technical expertise to other engineers. You will work closely with other technical teams in the application layer and backend video services to deliver features.

Job Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain our Rust and C/C++ player that drives our streaming experience.

• Optimize our player to perform well for resource-constrained platforms.

• Create and review architecture and designs for our team’s projects.

• Maintain a strong understanding of our code to identify, research and address issues, collaborate with application development teams, services engineering teams and product management to help understand and explain device limitations and requirements.

• Lead in strategies to ensure the quality and stability of our deployments, including testing strategies and telemetry approaches.

• Develop our project’s build system and continuous integration system as needed.

• Provide technical expertise or mentoring to developers on our team, hold our team accountable to high development standards.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent experience.

• Minimum of 7 years of related work experience.

• Long record of full software development lifecycle experience.

• Fluent in C and C++ or Rust.

• Willing to learn Rust.

• Experience developing and optimizing multi-threaded applications.

• Experience using build runners / compilation tools for multi-platform projects.

• Strong individual contributor with a drive to learn and patience to teach others.

• Great communication and collaboration skills and a strong teamwork ethic.

Preferred Qualifications

• Rust.

• Experience in Streaming technologies, including:

  • HLS (preferred) or DASH.

  • DRM technologies like Playready or Widevine.

  • Adaptive Bitrate Streaming Algorithms.

  • Caption and subtitle formats such as CEA-608 / 708.

  • Codecs AVC, HEVC, AAC, EAC3.

• Video analytics experience, for example Adobe Analytics, Nielsen, Comscore, Conviva.

• Cross-Platform Development.

• Embedded operating system experience.

• Experience developing for gaming consoles (e.g. Playstation, Switch), Android devices (e.g. FireTV), or similar devices.

• Familiarity with set-top box development and specialized SoCs from manufacturers like Broadcom, MediaTek, etc.

#disneytech

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, Washington and New York City is $163,500 - $219,200 per year and in Bristol, Connecticut, Santa Monica, California and Glendale, California is $149,300 - $200,200 per year and in Morrisville, North Carolina is $142,200 - $190,600 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.