Senior Principal Software Engineer

The Walt Disney Company

. Design, implement, and own the technical architecture and core software components for Disney’s streaming platform services layer .

Posted 9/22/2026full-timeUnited StatesSenior💰 $239,700 - $321,400 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates extensive expertise in designing and implementing large-scale distributed systems and platform services, with a strong focus on API gateways, observability, and service-to-service authentication. Proven ability to communicate technical strategies and mentor engineering teams while driving technical direction across organizations.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Distributed Systems ExpertiseAPI Gateway DesignService-To-Service AuthenticationPlatform Strategy CommunicationTechnical Mentorship

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Software EngineeringDistributed TracingRate LimitingCircuit BreakingLoad SheddingIdentity FederationSLO FrameworksError BudgetsTechnical ArchitecturePrototyping

Soft Skills

Technical CommunicationLeadershipCollaborationMentoring

Tools & Technologies

Observability PlatformsService MeshTelemetryIncident ManagementAI Infrastructure

Certifications & Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree or Higher

Industry Keywords

Streaming Media InfrastructureHyperscaler ExperienceLarge Consumer Technology

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed Systems

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Design, implement, and own the technical architecture and core software components for Disney’s streaming platform services layer
Build API gateway and edge services, service-to-service authentication and authorization, rate limiting, load shedding, circuit breaking, distributed tracing, telemetry, logging, identity sharing, observability, and experimentation platforms
Write, review, and ship production-grade shared libraries, services, SDKs, CLI tools, and golden-path templates adopted by 400+ teams
Produce reference implementations and starter kits
Create architecture decision records, technical design documents, and platform RFCs
Define API and event schema standards, SLO frameworks, error budgets, and upgrade-path contracts
Review and approve service designs and platform integrations
Translate architecture into executable quarterly roadmaps with milestones and ownership
Evaluate build-versus-buy decisions through prototyping, integration spikes, and cost modeling
Investigate complex distributed-systems production issues and design resiliency patterns
Partner with SRE and observability teams on telemetry, dashboards, alerting, and incident-driven improvements
Design AI-ready infrastructure supporting inference routing, model telemetry, experiment tracking, and feature flagging
Collaborate with AI/ML teams on reusable platform components
Drive technical direction across multiple organizations and influence Directors and VPs
Mentor Principal and Senior Engineers through pairing, code reviews, design critiques, and architecture reviews
Communicate platform strategy, roadmap progress, and technical trade-offs to engineering leadership

Requirements

What you’ll need

12+ years of software engineering experience
At least 5 years in a Staff, Principal, or higher-level individual contributor role owning large-scale systems
Direct experience designing, building, and operating platform or infrastructure services in an organization of 1,000+ engineers
Deep expertise in distributed systems and platforms, including API gateways, service mesh, distributed tracing, observability platforms, rate limiting, circuit breaking, and load shedding
Proven track record of delivering broadly adopted platform services
Hands-on experience with service-to-service authentication, zero-trust networking, and identity federation at scale
Ability to communicate technical architecture and platform strategy to Directors and VPs
Experience leading build-versus-buy decisions for platform-level capabilities
Related Bachelor’s Degree or Higher
Preferred: experience at a hyperscaler or large consumer technology company
Preferred: infrastructure experience supporting AI or ML systems
Preferred: streaming media infrastructure experience
Preferred: experience defining and governing SLO frameworks, error budgets, and production readiness standards

Benefits

Comp & perks

Bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided
Medical benefits
Financial benefits
Other benefits dependent on level and position offered