What are the responsibilities and job description for the Lead Software Product Engineer position at Walt Disney Imagineering?
About the Role & Team:
Walt Disney Imagineering makes the impossible possible, by combining innovation and storytelling to bring Disney stories, characters, and worlds to life. Imagineering is the master planning, creative development, design, engineering, production, project management, and research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company. Its talented Imagineers are responsible for the creation - from concept initiation through installation - of all Disney Resorts, theme parks and attractions, real estate developments, regional entertainment venues, and new media projects. Disney Imagineers are uniquely talented individuals who bring together the best aspects of creativity, innovation, and passion.
At Imagineering Research and Development, our mission is to use technology to build new experiences for our Guests and new tools for Imagineers and the Cast Members who power our parks. R&D is a team of engineers, designers, artists, and scientists who share a passion for solving hard problems and building ground-breaking experiences.
As the Estimating and Scope Management Tech Lead, you are the senior individual contributor and technical anchor for these capabilities. You set the technical direction, drive execution alongside our partner teams, and elevate the engineers around you. You think in user problems first: the Imagineers using these tools are the people across the table, not tickets in a backlog. This role reports to the Manager, Software Development and partners closely with product managers, project managers, and business stakeholders.
This role will report directly to the Sr. Manager of Software Development.
This is a Full-Time role.
What You Will Do
The hiring range for this position in Orlando, FL is $148,300.00-$198,800.00 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.
Walt Disney Imagineering makes the impossible possible, by combining innovation and storytelling to bring Disney stories, characters, and worlds to life. Imagineering is the master planning, creative development, design, engineering, production, project management, and research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company. Its talented Imagineers are responsible for the creation - from concept initiation through installation - of all Disney Resorts, theme parks and attractions, real estate developments, regional entertainment venues, and new media projects. Disney Imagineers are uniquely talented individuals who bring together the best aspects of creativity, innovation, and passion.
At Imagineering Research and Development, our mission is to use technology to build new experiences for our Guests and new tools for Imagineers and the Cast Members who power our parks. R&D is a team of engineers, designers, artists, and scientists who share a passion for solving hard problems and building ground-breaking experiences.
As the Estimating and Scope Management Tech Lead, you are the senior individual contributor and technical anchor for these capabilities. You set the technical direction, drive execution alongside our partner teams, and elevate the engineers around you. You think in user problems first: the Imagineers using these tools are the people across the table, not tickets in a backlog. This role reports to the Manager, Software Development and partners closely with product managers, project managers, and business stakeholders.
This role will report directly to the Sr. Manager of Software Development.
This is a Full-Time role.
What You Will Do
- Own the technical direction — architecture, design choices, and integration strategy.
- Lead delivery end-to-end — find the real problem underneath the stated one, prove feasibility fast, and ship what's worth shipping. Estimate, plan, design, implement, and close out software work for assigned scope, balancing evolving requirements against fixed budgets and schedules.
- Build and maintain whole feature sets — from desktop and web applications through cloud-scale services and the data pipelines that connect them.
- Partner across the Studio — translate product and business needs into technical requirements with product managers, project leads, and partner engineering teams; communicate trade-offs and risk early.
- Set the engineering bar — lead code reviews, define and uphold standards and processes within the portfolio and contribute to studio-wide practice.
- Build at the frontier — stay current on the tools changing how software gets made (AI-assisted development, modern data platforms, new frameworks), and bring what works back to the team.
- 8 years of professional software development experience, with a demonstrated track record of leading technical work.
- Strong proficiency in one or more modern languages (e.g., TypeScript, C#, Python, Java, JavaScript).
- Working knowledge of CI/CD, infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform), containerization (Docker), AWS, and observability tooling (e.g., Datadog, Splunk).
- Experience designing and operating full-stack systems in the cloud, with sound instincts for security, performance, and reliability.
- Fluency with modern engineering practice — version control, code review, automated testing, and workflow tooling (Git, GitLab, GitHub, JIRA, Jenkins).
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to document decisions and explain technical trade-offs to non-engineering partners.
- Willingness to travel occasionally on behalf of the company.
- Experience building software for estimating, project controls, or other business-critical domains.
- Depth in data modeling, ETL/data pipelines, and warehouse technologies (e.g., Snowflake).
- Familiarity with reactive front-end frameworks (Vue.js preferred) and full-stack TypeScript/Node.js.
- Experience integrating or extending vendor SaaS platforms and managing technical aspects of vendor relationships.
- Proficiency with AI-assisted development workflows and tooling (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code).
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field Required.
- Disney offers a rewards package to help you live your best life. This includes health and savings benefits, educational opportunities, and special extras that only Disney can provide. Learn more about our benefits and perks at https://jobs.disneycareers.com/benefits.
The hiring range for this position in Orlando, FL is $148,300.00-$198,800.00 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.
Salary : $148,300 - $198,800