Principal Software Engineer – Ad Experiences

The Walt Disney Company

Principal Software Engineer developing ad experiences for Disney's media products and platforms. Collaborating across teams to create scalable ad-serving systems with high performance and maintainability.

Posted 6/8/2026full-timeSanta Monica • California, Washington • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $188,400 - $264,700 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

ApacheAWSCloudDynamoDBJavaKafkaMicroservicesRedisSpringSpring BootSpringBoot

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Writing some and reviewing a lot of code and tests.
Reviewing code and test implementations for best practices and algorithmic complexity.
Available to support engineers on an On-Call shift, when needed.
Reading requirements documentation from Product, providing a perspective on feasibility and translating into implementation tasks, and partnering with teams’ leads through execution as needed.
Exploring, researching, implementing proofs-of-concept, and proposing solutions that will improve Ad Serving systems (reduce cost and overhead, improve maintainability, minimize the time features take to be in production, etc).
Defining, reviewing, and documenting software and system designs in a high throughput, low latency microservices environment.
Enhancing systems’ observability with proper metrics, monitors, and alerts.
Foster open communication during architectural discussions, confidently defending decisions while welcoming feedback.
Bridge the gap between diverse team requirements and technical capabilities to deliver cohesive, scalable solutions.
Mentoring and inspiring others in all aspects of professional software development.

Requirements

What you’ll need

BS or MS in Computer Science/Engineering or relevant work experience
10+ years of software engineering experience
Advanced proficiency with Java, such as understanding heap, multi-threading, garbage collection, profiling
Demonstrable analytical / problem-solving / design skills in a highly distributed and highly available services ecosystem
Excellent communication, collaboration skills, and a strong teamwork ethic with both technical and non-technical audiences
Comprehensive experience with: SpringBoot and related Spring projects
Non-relational database technologies e.g. DynamoDB
Redis and/or MemCache
Apache Kafka and/or Kinesis
AWS or any other cloud platform
Observability tooling (logs, metrics, etc)

Benefits

Comp & perks

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.

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools

JavaSpringBootDynamoDBRedisMemCacheApache KafkaKinesisAWSobservability toolingmulti-threading

Soft Skills

communicationcollaborationteamworkanalytical skillsproblem-solvingdesign skillsmentoringinspiring othersopen communicationdefending decisions

Certifications

BS in Computer ScienceMS in Computer Sciencerelevant work experience