Media Streaming Engineer

Department/Group Overview:

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:

1. 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.

2. 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. 

3. 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 Media Streaming Engineer will work to ensure that our team is working to bring in generative AI solutions to our expanded workflows. This role demands a meticulous eye for detail, strong technical knowledge of video/audio standards, and expertise in next generation AI technology to help transform our current team and workflows.   In addition, the candidate will help to implement automation and Ai into complex media review and publishing workflows under tight deadlines and collaborate with internal teams and external partners. This is an ideal role for someone with a post-production technology background and the passion to bridge human workflows with AI automation. You’ll work with product, production, post-production and internal distribution operations teams to build, protype and design innovative and next gen workflows. The ideal candidate will want to continue to innovate and better the existing workflows, as we explore acceleration and optimization of our media asset and delivery processes.

What You’ll Do

• Design, test, and deploy AI automation and multi-agent workflows that reduce manual effort and optimize production, mastering, and distribution processes.
• Identify opportunities to introduce new automation and AI-powered solutions tailored to distribution-operations needs, including:
  • Asset validation
  • Quality control
  • Data ingestion
  • Metadata tagging
  • File transfer, acceleration, and end-to-end tracking
• Architect and maintain multi-agent systems that manage data I/O and asset movement across geographically distributed locations, ensuring file integrity, security, and operational reliability.
• Develop workflows that maintain seamless inter-site transfers, monitor asset health, and automatically remediate transfer failures or inconsistencies.
• Design scalable cloud-based workflows and environments for media prep, post production operators to eliminate on prem downloads and accelerate content handling.
• Integrate and operationalize solutions from external partners such as AWS, Lucidlink and other cloud or storage vendors to enhance automation and data throughput.
• Collaborate with product, post production, and distribution operations teams to onboard, support and maintain automation and Ai tooling.
• Document system behavior, workflow metrics, and failure modes to ensure high reliability and adherence to on-time and first-time-right delivery standards.
• Serve as a primary escalation point for diagnosing and resolving complex audio/video issues throughout the content lifecycle.
• Engage with external media partners to troubleshoot delivery issues, clarify technical requirements, and provide actionable solutions.
• Utilize ticketing systems to log, track, and resolve issues related to machines, networks, file-transfer systems, and workflow applications.
• Monitor and analyze AI and automation trends within media and entertainment, translating insights into operational efficiencies and workflow enhancements.
• Provide recommendations that improve throughput, reduce failure rates, and increase end-to-end automation coverage.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Workflow optimization and implementation of automation within current processes supporting media asset prep and delivery operations
• Technical troubleshooting, ticketing and training
• Data I/O, asset prep and publishing

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Minimum 3 years of experience in QC, automation, pipeline tools, or Ai-assisted production or post production technology and workflows or related experience
• Proficiency with implementation of AI agent frameworks, AWS services (including EC2) and building automation workflows in cloud environments
• Familiarity with Python and JSON-based data structures
• Basic understanding of digital video specifications (UHD, HDR, Dolby Vision), timed text formats, and audio standards (Dolby Atmos, 5.1, Stereo).
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot technical issues under pressure.
• Outstanding communication skills for collaborating with internal teams and external partners.
• Ability to deliver high-quality results in a heavy multitasking environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with ffmpeg, command-line operations (OSX/Linux), MediaInfo, emerging video/audio encoding technologies
• Knowledge of video editing software and NLEs such as Adobe Premiere, Colorfront Transkoder, and DaVinci Resolve
• Experience with SaaS database products such as Airtable, content management systems, ingest platforms, and high-speed transfer services (e.g., Aspera, Signiant).

The hiring range for this position in Glendale, CA is $97,500 to $130,700 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