Lead Software Engineer - Secret Management

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

We’re seeking a Lead Software Engineer to join our Secret Management team, responsible for building a secure, scalable, and automated credential management system used across Disney’s technology ecosystem. This system enables secure access to credentials in various environments and integrates with numerous platforms to support automated credential rotation, compliance requirements, and diverse user interactions—from UI to CLI to libraries. As we are still in the early stages of this initiative, this is a unique opportunity to influence the architecture and foundational elements of a critical service. Our team supports a wide range of Disney businesses—including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN—by providing essential security infrastructure. The ideal candidate is a strong engineer with excellent problem-solving skills, a willingness to dive deep, and the ability to thrive in a collaborative, fast-paced environment. Familiarity with specific technologies is a plus, but curiosity and the ability to learn quickly are more important.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement mission-critical applications, services, and libraries using Java, Python, and Scala
• Build and evolve secure credential storage and retrieval mechanisms across cloud and on-prem environments
• Build reusable components that encapsulate complex business logic and integrate across various systems
• Collaborate with product managers, architects, and engineers to define and deliver roadmap goals
• Establish and promote best practices around configuration, naming conventions, and platform standards
• Drive operational excellence through observability, alerting, and reliability practices
• Participate actively in code reviews, design discussions, and team agile rituals
• Engage with internal customers to understand their needs and provide intuitive, secure access to secret management tools
• Maintain comprehensive documentation to support internal adoption, governance, and compliance auditing

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software development experience
• Proven experience architecting and implementing complex, distributed systems
• Demonstrated success delivering highly available, mission-critical services in production environments
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language, with working knowledge of Java required
• Hands-on experience with modern architectural paradigms such as microservices, event-driven systems, and containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)
• Skilled at producing architectural artifacts, including system diagrams, technical documentation, and design decision records
• Solid understanding of software design patterns and system design principles, with the ability to both apply best practices and critically assess them when needed
• Proficiency with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, with a preference for AWS experience
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across technical and non-technical teams

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field preferred
• Demonstrated curiosity and enthusiasm for exploring new technologies through hands-on experimentation or proof-of-concept projects
• Strong interest in tackling complex, fast-evolving technology or business challenges
• Passion for automation, scalable systems, data-driven solutions, and creative technical innovation
• Experience designing and building internet-scale platforms or systems with high availability and performance requirements
• Contributions to open-source projects or a portfolio of personal work (e.g., GitHub) that reflects your technical interests and abilities

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

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Bristol, Connecticut is $152,200 to $204,100 per year, Santa Monica, California is $152,200 to $204,100 per year, in Seattle, Washington is $159,500 to $213,900 per year, in New York, New York is $159,500 to $213,900 per year, and in San Francisco, California is $166,800 to $223,600 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.