Manager, Software Engineer - Video Playback

January 31, 2025

Job Description:

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 improve 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:

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.
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 implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience

Media Engineering builds the software and systems that prepare media content and metadata for the Disney Streaming platform - providing the best possible playback experience to our viewers.

Media Engineering handles audio, video, and metadata content from ingest through publish - for normalization, processing, and packaging - supporting operator tools and automation for a scalable workflow. We build logic across players and back-end services to measure, control, and optimize playback across our stack.

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 talented Software Engineering Manager to help us deliver excellent streaming experiences for ESPN, Hulu, and Disney+ as a developer of our low-level embedded cross-platform player. Our team is responsible for playback across several devices including gaming consoles, mobile devices, 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 engineering manager with C/C++ and embedded engineering experience as well as 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 an engineering manager, you team will own the lowest level media pipeline implemented in firmware. You will lead the technical direction of the team’s 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.

Responsibilities

Manage team that develops C++ player media pipeline
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

8+ years of full software development lifecycle experience
2+ years of experience managing software engineers
Fluent in C and C++ and Rust
Embedded engineering experience
Experience with playback and video streaming technology
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
BS or BA in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field or equivalent experience

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
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.

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA or New York, NY is between $175,800 – $235,700, Los Angeles, CA is between $167,700 – $224,900 year, in San Francisco is between $183,700 – $246,400. 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:

Media Engineering

Job Posting Primary Business:

ME - Media Player Engineering

Primary Job Posting Category:

Software Engineer

Employment Type:

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