Lead Software Engineer (Front End)

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 Disney’s 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 maximize 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.

                                                                                                               

The Product & Data Engineering team is responsible for end to end development for Disney’s world-class consumer-facing products, including streaming platforms Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, and digital products & experiences across ESPN, Marvel, Disney Studios, NatGeo, and ABC News. The team drives innovation at scale for millions of consumers around the world across Apple, Android, Smart TVs, game consoles, and the web, with our platforms powering core experiences like personalization, search, messaging and data.

A few reasons why we think you’d love working for Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology:

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

• 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.

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

As part of the ESPN Native Client Platform Rust Client Application Engineering Team, you will help us push the boundaries of what is possible on some of the most interesting 10-foot devices in the marketplace! You’ll be part of the team that builds our Direct-to-Consumer ESPN client app on a wide range of devices supported by our Native Client Platform. Best of all, you’ll get to build these apps in Rust!

Job Summary:

We’re looking for an engineer who has experience in Rust and comes from a C/C++ background, who knows how to write cross platform code, and is ready to push the boundaries of UX on our custom in-house runtime to provide the best app experiences for our viewers on devices across the varying spectrum from set-top boxes to modern game consoles.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Bring advanced native engineering skills to be a critical member of a team of engineers responsible for building our client application experiences in Rust.

• Contribute to the development of new application features from onboarding to browse UI/UX experiences, analytics, video playback UI/UX and much more. If you see it on screen, you’ll likely have a chance to work on it in code.

• Work with hardware manufacturing partners to vet new hardware from a client application perspective.

• Collaborate closely with our Native Client Platform Core engineering team, services engineering teams and product owners to help understand and explain device limitations and requirements.

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

• Candidates should have 7+ years of C/C++ experience on embedded systems and/or writing portable multi-platform code, with 2-3+ years of personal or professional Rust experience.

• Understanding of various chip architectures and what features they support.

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

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working on user interface-level code with knowledge of common patterns, architectures and approaches to present a data driven UX to viewers.

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

• Graphics experience with OpenGL/EGL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan, Metal, etc.

• Cross device dependency management.

• Game engines and game engine technologies.

• Internals of browser technology such as Webkit, WPE, Chromium, Cobalt.

Required Education: 

• Bachelor’s degree or better in Computer Science or a related technical field or equivalent job experience.

The hiring range for this position in New York/Seattle is $159,500 to $213,900 per year, in Los Angeles is $152,200 to $204,100 per year and in San Francisco is $166,800 to $223,600 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.