Principal Systems 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 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.

Content Platforms & Operations is responsible for the development and ongoing advancement of the technical and operational functions driving the worldwide distribution and monetization of Disney’s linear networks and theatrical content. This includes Disney’s media supply chain and storage, network and theatrical distribution operations, media localization, network transmission and origination, and more. The global team also plays a critical role as the primary collaboration point for Product & Technology with Disney’s EMEA, APAC, and LATAM regional business teams.

Job Summary:

The individual in this position will join the Engineering Services Infrastructure team in an exciting, fast paced environment, supporting, securing, and managing our storage and compute solutions through a variety of technologies.  We leverage multiple storage and compute platforms. 

Primary Technologies are: Block, File, and Object storage, SAN attached storage, and other enterprise level solutions covering on-premise and cloud. 

This role will apply architecture best practices to establish, review and maintain standards for storage across the enterprise.  The individual will ensure that technologies chosen are consistent with the architecture blueprints and long term strategies of the Walt Disney company.  Finally, this role is charged with building and communicating to the organization the strategic blueprints, and reference architectures for the Live, VOD, and storage domains.  

The individual must have a broad knowledge of Storage as a Service and cloud technologies such as AWS, Azure and GCP.  Working with other team members they will develop project strategy, blueprints, and engage vendors to select and implement solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and architecture of complex systems.
• Define system requirements and specifications based on business goals and decisions.
• Translate enterprise business strategy into domain blueprints and roadmaps.  This will require negotiating with senior management and customers to influence decisions and strategic direction.
• Create high-level architecture and detailed designs.
• Apply deep technical knowledge for the storage domains in a project or Enterprise context across Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology.
• Responsible for ensuring that consistent practices are followed, reference architectures are developed and maintained. 
• Responsible for developing, maintaining and applying standards for projects and programs. 
• Responsible to complete discovery activities for Storage and compute solutions (Vast, Pure, etc.), recommend and design the specific implementations to support the requirements of the individual business groups (Disney+, ESPN Linear, Studios, etc.).
• Perform system performance trend analysis as required.
• Works with cross-functional teams, collaborating with engineers and other stakeholders.
• Manage the development, implementation and administration of operational processes, programs, and systems.
• All other duties as required to help achieve business goals, including but not limited to, availability for afterhours escalated support.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field of study.
• A minimum of 10-years of relevant experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in scripting using Perl, Bash, Shell or equivalent
• Possesses strong analytical and technical skills.
• Excellent understanding of storage and compute systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills: Ability to communicate effectively with end-users, business owners, developers, managers, and systems engineers.
• Ability to discuss highly technical concepts to a variety of audiences, including executive level and technical decision-makers.
• Industry expert and understanding of software solutions for content creation, manipulation, encoding/transcoding and distribution.
• Have a thorough knowledge of the syntax, capabilities, and limitations of the Linux operating systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong commitment to customer service and service enablement.
• Demonstrates ability to deliver detailed technical documentation.
• Experience working within an Agile Scrum methodology.
• Knowledge of process management, process streamlining, and process organization tools as well as a fundamental understanding of ITIL best practices.
• Expert knowledge of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
• Expert knowledge in working and supporting storage and compute systems.
• Expert scripting and automation skills (e.g., PowerShell, vbscript, Python, UNIX shell, etc.).
• Strong problem solving and troubleshooting skills.

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Glendale, CA / Burbank, CA / Los Angeles, CA / Bristol, CT is $152,200 to $204,100 per year and in New York, NY is $159,500 to $213,900 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.