Principal Software Engineer - iOS

Principal Software Engineer - iOS (ESPN)

About the Role & Team

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.  

Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms. This includes product engineering, media engineering, quality assurance, engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

Job Summary

This is a hands-on engineering position developing mobile applications for ESPN inside the Apple Ecosystem with Obj-C/Swift. In this role, you will work with a cross-functional team of Product Managers, Designers, Mobile/Web/Backend Engineers, and Content Creators to conceptualize and develop world-class Disney apps. You will apply your technical expertise to manage individual project priorities, deadlines and deliverables and will design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance software solutions. You will architect reusable solutions that are shared across all Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology apps. You may lead others to solve complex problems and provide oversight and direction to other software engineers.

Role Location: This is a Hybrid role requiring 4 days onsite (Monday-Thursday) in one of the following office locations:

• NYC

• Bristol, CT

• Glendale, CA

• Santa Monica, CA

• Seattle, WA

• San Francisco, CA

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role

• Drive best engineering practices to write well-constructed and easy-to-maintain code, and robust tests.

• Challenge current architectural choices and collaborate to solve problems in innovative ways.

• Analyze and optimize application code for efficiency, reliability and performance.

• Collaborate efficiently with product management, technical program management, operations, and other engineering teams to capture requirements, drive implementation, and provide transparency.

• Manage multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.

• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to a distributed team of engineers across multiple organizations, fostering a collaborative development process.

• Coding, PR Reviews, Writing Tests

• Collaborating with QA and Automation Team

• Interacting with the Product Development team to review requirements and discuss feature development

Required Experience / Skills / Training

• 10+ years of hands-on professional development experience with the Apple ecosystem.

• iOS/tvOS app development lifecycle including Apple App Store compliance policies and submissions requirements.

• Working on a significant consumer app that is currently available in the marketplace.

• Writing efficient, reliable, and maintainable code whether implementing architectural improvements, user-facing features, or fixing defects.

• Troubleshooting and resolving issues, problems, and errors encountered across various platforms.

• Analyze and optimize application code for efficiency, reliability and performance.

• Managing multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.

• Working on a highly collaborative team that rewards quality code and effective communication.

• Operating as an expert resource to other Software Engineers, providing an open learning environment for cross-team knowledge sharing.

• Solving unique and complex problems that have a broad impact on the business.

• Contributing to the development of functional strategy.

• Leading project teams to achieve milestones and objectives.

Preferred Experience / Skills / Training

• Expertise of OO design patterns and concepts.

• Expert understanding of HTTP/S, APIs, and web services.

• Expertise with unit test frameworks and continuous integration systems.

• Solid understanding of architecture, assisting Software Architects as necessary.

• Solid foundation and understanding of dynamic multi-threaded mobile apps.

• Motivated self-starter with the ability to learn and adapt to new technologies.

• Ability to collaborate in a small, productive development team as well as the larger engineering organization.

• Work with minimal technical supervision and supplemental engineering support.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; can effectively articulate complex ideas and influence others through well-reasoned explanations.

• Often regarded as an expert in their field.

• Consistently involved in major work efforts of strategic importance, working directly with senior levels, often multidisciplinary in nature.

Experience with:

• iOS/tvOS app development lifecycle including Apple App Store compliance policies and submissions requirements.

• Working on a significant consumer app that is currently available in the marketplace.

• Writing efficient, reliable, and maintainable code whether implementing architectural improvements, user-facing features, or fixing defects.

• Troubleshooting and resolving issues, problems, and errors encountered across various platforms.

• Analyze and optimize application code for efficiency, reliability and performance.

• Managing multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.

• Working on a highly collaborative team that rewards quality code and effective communication.

• Operating as an expert resource to other Software Engineers, providing an open learning environment for cross-team knowledge sharing.

• Solving unique and complex problems that have a broad impact on the business.

• Contributing to the development of functional strategy.

• Leading project teams to achieve milestones and objectives.

Required Education  

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience