Senior Software Engineer (Backend)

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. ESPN Bet. 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. 

As a member of the Interactive Messaging Platform Team within the Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology Division, you will help power the critical infrastructure behind ESPN’s alerts and messaging systems. This platform is responsible for delivering billions of individual messages each week—including push notifications, live activities, and email alerts at incredible speeds and massive scale. You’ll join a fast-paced, passionate team dedicated to building and maintaining high-throughput systems that operate with extreme reliability and performance. These systems are essential to real-time fan engagement, powering experiences like ESPN Fantasy Football, live game alerts, and around the clock breaking news. 

In this role, you will: 

• Design, develop, test, and deploy high-quality software solutions for one of the most visible messaging platforms in the sports world. 

• Help evolve and scale a platform that supports mission-critical communication for millions of users daily. 

• Collaborate closely with product and technical leaders to translate business needs into scalable, maintainable systems. 

• Gain and/or apply mastery of Java, AWS, and other industry leading high scale technologies 

• Gain and/or apply mastery of relevant NoSQL technologies to optimize our overall performance 

• Work on performance-optimized infrastructure that handles traffic volumes few engineers ever encounter 

• Feed your thirst for learning new skills and technology as part of the larger DEET organization 

Come help shape the future of interactive platforms underpinning Disney products used by millions of users every day! 

What You Will Do: 

• Collaborate with other teams to develop estimates, roadmaps, and workflow processes to achieve strategic company objectives 

• Own the concept, design, implementation, and maintenance of complex technical projects that anticipate the needs of the business for years to come 

• Build consensus and influence decisions through well-reasoned research and explanations 

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

• Write efficient, reliable, and testable code  

• Review, analyze, and optimize code for readability, reliability, and performance 

• Design and implement automated code and system tests 

• Instrument, monitor, and support live operations of systems your team owns 

• Troubleshoot and resolve issues, problems, and errors encountered across company platforms 

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

• Work autonomously with minimal technical supervision 

• Be a subject matter expert for your team 

What You Will Bring: 

Basic Qualifications 

• Minimum of 5+ years of professional experience 

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

• Deep understanding of the Java programming language and object-oriented programming 

• Proven ability to solve challenging technical problems 

• Proven ability to learn new technology and/or complex systems 

• Hand on experience with Amazon Web Services (AWS) or similar cloud service 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences 

Preferred qualifications: 

• Master's Degree in Computer Science 

• Self-starter with proven ability to deliver high quality software in a pragmatic fashion 

• Demonstrable experience using MongoDB or other NoSQL databases 

• Experience implementing and optimizing dev-ops workflows and related technologies 

• Experience implementing and optimizing complex cloud software installations and infrastructure 

• Extensive experience with Amazon Web Services (AWS) or similar cloud service 

• Experience working on highly scalable, real-time software platforms 

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