Principal Media Streaming Engineer

Principal Media Streaming Engineer

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 worldwide.

• Design and build automation tools for metrics reporting, dashboards, and operational insights.
• Develop automation solutions to augment and streamline operational workflows.
• Drive initiatives to enhance the reliability and performance of the VOD processing ecosystem.
• Create scripts and applications that reduce manual intervention and improve efficiency.
• Build comprehensive monitoring and alerting systems for VOD processing pipelines.
• Partner with development teams on feature requests, troubleshooting, and system optimizations.
• Evaluate and integrate new encoding technologies and methodologies.
• Provide training to internal team members and document workflows, standard operating procedures, and technical specifications.
• Provide guidance to external teams on VOD encoding and processing workflows.

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively complex related experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent work experience.
• Experience designing and building VOD processing and encoding workflows.
• Experience with on‑prem and cloud‑based transcoding and encoding solutions.
• Deep knowledge of video codecs and compression (H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, AV1) and audio codecs and containers (AAC, PCM, AC‑3, EAC‑3, Dolby Atmos).
• Strong to advanced experience with command‑line video tools (FFMPEG, MP4
  
  Box, Media Info).
• Extensive knowledge of A /OTT technologies (HLS, DASH, CMAF) and video fundamentals (resolution, frame rates, color spaces, HDR).
• Comfortable with Mac, Linux, and Windows command‑line environments.
• Strong communication skills and advanced scripting experience (Python, BASH, Ruby).
• Experience building automation tools, dashboards, and reporting systems; familiarity with REST API communication.
• Experience with data visualization and metrics platforms such as Grafana or Datadog.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Comfortable acting as a technical lead.

• Experience in programming with backend and frontend UI development in languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript, etc.
• Familiarity with front‑end technologies for building internal tools (React, Vue, or similar).
• Knowledge of quality control systems and automated content verification.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines for media workflow automation.
• Understanding of DAI workflows in an OTT environment.
• Experience with machine learning/AI.
• Knowledge of content protection and DRM systems.
• Familiarity with database technologies (SQL, No
  
  SQL) for metrics and reporting.

Compensation for this position varies by location and is based on experience, specific geography, and internal equity. Salary ranges are as follows (USD per year):
New York, NY – $163,100 to $218,700;
Santa Monica, CA – $155,700 to $208,700;
San Francisco, CA – $170,500 to $228,600. Additional bonuses, long‑term incentives, and a comprehensive benefits package are also offered.