Job Posting Title:

Director, Media Systems Engineering

Req ID:

10141997

Job Description:

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:

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:

Disney Media Systems Engineers have a clear charter: to transform the capability and flexibility of how Disney acquires, produces, and distributes content worldwide, all while ensuring the highest levels of quality, efficiency, and resiliency.

Disney Media Systems Engineers are subject matter experts on complex and multifaceted disciplines which requires a deep knowledge of hardware and software-based technologies. Individuals in these roles must possess a comprehensive theoretical and practical understanding of the technology that powers the generation, monetization, and distribution of all forms of consumer- facing linear and digital video/audio content. The team is responsible for the oversight of numerous systems such as Playout Technology, Studios, Production Control Rooms, Remote Production, Post-Production, Contribution/Distribution Systems, Networking, Cloud Compute, Production Software and Virtual Environment and more.

The Director Media Systems Engineer acts as a technical leader and is responsible for working with engineers to architect solutions to business/stakeholder requests. This individual will also work closely with management, Executive Leadership, and key stakeholders to gather infrastructure requirements and holds the accountability for influencing the advancement of Disney’s technical posture and approach. This includes being accountable for the strategy and implementation of our core technology, as well as defining and directing the strategic vision and roadmap for the technological framework across key locations.

The Director Media Systems Engineer will work with vendors and industry trade organizations to define and evolve industry standards that impact our business. The Director Media Systems Engineer will work collaboratively with engineers and architects to lead all aspects of the design and build of Disney’s most impactful projects and will leverage their experience to create policies, procedures, and standards that drive all our technological development.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Lead the development of or develops innovating broad-scale technical solutions that have a significant impact on future technological practices and standards of the organization.
• Direct, oversee resolution of broader scope issues that affect content acquisition, production, encoding, decoding, and content distribution across multiple DE&E Technology networks (linear, digital, and streaming platforms) including multi-resolution support across broadcast facilities (720p/1080/4K/UHD/HDR), metadata conversion, audio mapping, system outages, microservices architecture, and related technical problems.
• Oversee a team of engineers to implement and execute on-prem and cloud-based infrastructure projects that support broadcast production for distribution, conditioning, monitoring, and routing infrastructure, between and throughout all facilities for content ingest and network distribution.
• Direct, architect, design, and implement media technology environments that are aligned with industry standards for innovation, which allow DE&E Technology the ability to acquire, produce, store, stream, and distribute our content across all infrastructure.
• Drive infrastructure re-engineering and integration efforts inclusive of documenting and analyzing complex business workflows, requirement gathering from stakeholders, defining areas of innovation opportunity, and overseeing the design of future state processes.
• Accountable for the modernization of legacy media production infrastructure systems through the identification of new technological innovations and advancements within the industry. (i.e. SMPTE ST 2110, 4K, UHD, HDR, JPEG-XS, NDI, Pro Res Raw, H.265, AV1, and more)
• Collaborate closely with Production and Content operations teams to gather requirements and develop solutions based on broadcast facility’s needs, vet broadcast systems workflows, implement new cutting-edge technologies, and steer television standards organizations.
• Drive the overall investigative strategy of our organization to bring synergy and efficiency across Disney facilities and our overall broadcast ecosystem.
• Partner with our Portfolio and finance teams on project capital planning and forecasting, estimations, dependencies, business value/justification, synergy, and prioritization of work.

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications:

• 12+ years of demonstrated and relevant experience in leading others, developing technical strategies ensuring efficient design/build, uptime, and overall stability of the technical environments of live media production and distribution.
• Proficient with technologies like microservices, DevOps tools, design principles, practices, standards, and guidelines
• Proficient with software development, scripting, and integration with 3rd party services via api. Java/Python/Typescript preferred.
• Proficient in cloud orchestration (ie CloudFormation, terraform) and CI/CD
• Working knowledge of IP based routing, DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP, HTTP, UDP, SSL, and SNMP.
• Expert knowledge in standards for broadcast television and video production/streaming environments with a current certification such as not limited to ST 292M, ST 424M, ST 2110, ST 2059, IEE1588, ST 2022-7, SCTE-104, NMOS IS-04, 05, etc.
• Expert level knowledge and experience with on-prem and cloud-based storage and compute infrastructure platforms and current technological offerings. (Virtual machines, docker containers) File-based workflows like enterprise Media Asset Management systems (Cloud-based Cloud Compute or Local Network-based) including storage, compute, encode and distribution.
• Expert level knowledge and experience with compression techniques such as MPEG2/4, HEVC, JPEG 2000, and JPEG XS.
• Master Expert level knowledge and experience with major media systems and the vendors that supply them in areas such as asset management systems, file-based workflows, media acquisition, transcoding/encoding, graphics, and NAS/SAN technologies.

Required Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in electrical engineering, computer science, and/or equivalent 10+ years of work experience.

The base salary for this position in Charlotte, North Carolina is $163,400.00-$219,100.00. 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.

Job Posting Segment:

Content Platforms & Operations:

Job Posting Primary Business:

CPO - Infrastructure Engineering:

Primary Job Posting Category:

Media Systems Engineering:

Employment Type:

Full time

Primary City, State, Region, Postal Code:

Charlotte, NC, USA

Alternate City, State, Region, Postal Code:

Date Posted:

2026-02-04