Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning

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 our 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 enhance 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 sports, entertainment & news.

The Client Optimization team plays a critical role in the experience our customers enjoy with our streaming services. They focus on both managing and observing the quality of the playback users get while watching video. This includes making decisions in real time about how to optimize the Quality of Experience as well as collecting information about how the playback performed which is analyzed to continue improving the experience. This team writes components which embed directly into the video players as well as analytic tools around the results.

As a Senior Software Engineer on this team, you will help us build new machine learning models to improve the quality of video playback for our customers, work with our existing predictive models, and refine and define our analytic techniques used for evaluating the performance of new playback and optimization algorithms. There will be opportunities to collaborate with a varied team of data engineers, other software engineers, researchers, product managers and more, as well as to provide leadership by example to other developers on the team and in the organization. If you enjoy streaming media, are interested in live sports and entertainment, or just want to join a fast-growing team that plays an integral part of the revenue producing arm of a company, then our team is for you.

Responsibilities

• Implement and train machine learning models, evaluating their performance, and fine-tuning hyperparameters

• Able to analyze data to product insights to feed back into model development

• Experience applying statistical analysis techniques, including hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and data visualization

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (or related field), or equivalent training or work experience

• 5+ years of experience applying machine learning concepts, algorithms, and techniques, including supervised and unsupervised learning, regression, classification, clustering, and dimensionality reduction

• Proficient in Python (Pandas, SciPy, NumPy) and/or R with a focus on data manipulation, analysis, and visualization

• Proficient in SQL and database querying to extract, manipulate, and analyze large datasets

• Experience with Spark and the Databricks platform

• Prior domain experience with video/audio streaming

• Strong teamwork and collaboration skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA and in New York City, NY is $142.516 to $191,180 per year; the hiring range for this position in Santa Monica/Burbank/Glendale/L.A., California and in Bristol, Connecticut is $136,038 to $182,490; and the hiring range for this position in San Francisco, California is $148,994 to $199,870 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.

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