Lead Software Engineer - AI Assisted Engineering Practices

About the role

Job Posting Title:

Lead Software Engineer - AI Assisted Engineering Practices

Req ID:

10146000

Job Description:

This is not a remote role. You must be in the area or willing to relocate!

“We Power the Magic!” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences (DX). Our team creates world-class immersive digital experiences for the Company’s premier vacation brands including Disney’s Parks & Resorts worldwide, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club, Storyliving by Disney, Adventures by Disney, and National Geographic Expeditions.

This role sits in the Disney Signature Experience organization within Technology & Digital for Disney Experiences. It supports high-visibility, guest-facing digital platforms and works closely with Storyliving by Disney, Adventures by Disney and National Geographic Expeditions (A&E) businesses.

Role Summary

The Lead Software Engineer will be responsible for leading the development and implementation of custom and commercial software projects to power both cast and guest experiences. They will champion the use of AI-assisted development tools and process automation across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), driving measurable improvements in delivery speed, code quality, and operational efficiency.

This role intentionally blends active software development with technical leadership. You will spend meaningful time designing, building, reviewing, and improving code while also setting technical direction, mentoring engineers, and guiding platform strategy. The role emphasizes modern front-end engineering (UI architecture, performance, accessibility, component-driven development) while maintaining full-stack responsibility with back-end systems.

You will partner closely with Product, UX, Content, and Business stakeholders to ensure the web platform and front-end ecosystem scale reliably to support best-in-class, high-traffic, revenue-generating digital experiences.

What You’ll Do

Experience Platform & Front-End Engineering Leadership (Primary Focus)

Own the technical strategy, roadmap, and operational health of the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) platform and the guest-facing front-end ecosystem built on it

Set front-end architecture direction for guest-facing web experiences (rendering strategy, component architecture, data/state patterns) and ensure consistency across products

Lead platform upgrades, security posture, performance optimization, reliability, and scalability initiatives across both the platform and UI layer

Establish and evolve engineering standards and best practices for front-end development (patterns, guardrails, quality gates, CI/CD expectations)

Build and govern reusable capabilities: components/templates/workflows/content models and shared UI component libraries/design system adoption

Write, review, and optimize production-quality code using JavaScript and TypeScript; provide hands-on technical leadership for React and Angular implementations

Champion web fundamentals using measurable standards and tooling: performance, accessibility (WCAG), SEO, and responsive design

Partner with Product, UX, Design, and Content teams to translate designs into scalable, maintainable solutions and enable AI-assisted content workflows (e.g., tagging, summarization, optimization) with brand governance and quality controls

Introduce AI-enhanced experience capabilities where valuable (e.g., intelligent search, recommendations, conversational interfaces, personalization) with appropriate quality and risk controls

Services & Integrations (Full-Stack Leadership)

Design, implement, and review APIs, microservices, and backend integrations supporting business and guest experiences

Define integration strategies with internal systems and third-party services, ensuring secure and reliable service contracts

Contribute hands-on across the stack as needed to unblock teams, accelerate delivery, and resolve complex technical challenges

Collaborate with architects on cloud-native and AI solution patterns, ensuring operability and maintainability

Ensure end-to-end alignment between front-end, services, and infrastructure (performance, reliability, observability readiness)

Engineering Excellence & Delivery

Drive adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices (agentic IDEs, code assistants, AI pair programming) to improve throughput and quality, with clear team guardrails and measurable outcomes

Set standards for “trust-but-verify” usage of AI-generated code: validation, security review, refactoring expectations, and maintainability requirements (including preventing over-reliance on automation)

Expand SDLC automation using AI where it improves outcomes (test generation, documentation generation, code review acceleration, pipeline improvements), while preserving engineering rigor

Actively participate in development while leading code reviews to ensure quality, security, and maintainability

Identify, prioritize, and remediate technical debt through hands-on contribution and backlog planning

Translate business requirements into clear technical designs, stories, and implementation plans

Guide estimation, planning, and delivery of complex initiatives

Ensure CI/CD, monitoring, logging, and observability are built into all solutions

Review and approve solution designs and technical documentation

Ensure you remain up to date with emerging technologies so you can make informed recommendations

Team Leadership & Mentorship

Mentor and coach engineers through code reviews, pairing, and design discussions

Provide technical leadership to both onshore and offshore development teams

Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing engineering culture

Promote effective use of AI-assisted developer tools to improve code quality, velocity, and documentation

Lead by example through strong engineering practices, ownership, and accountability

Required Qualifications

7+ years of professional software engineering experience

Demonstrated ability to lead technical decision-making, influence architecture across teams, and align engineering solutions with business outcomes

An advocate for a diverse and inclusive culture that encourages innovation and ensures every team member feels a sense of belonging

Must have demonstrated success using AI coding assistants (agentic IDEs / AI pair programming) to improve delivery speed and quality

Must have experience implementing AI-enabled automation across SDLC (testing, code review, documentation, CI/CD) with measurable outcomes

Strong “trust-but-verify” discipline: validate, secure, refactor, and govern AI-generated output to meet maintainability standards

Ability to establish team guardrails and educate others on responsible AI usage (risks, over-reliance, licensing/security considerations)

Strong expertise in modern front-end development using JavaScript and TypeScript

Must have hands-on experience with Node.js, React and Angular in large-scale applications

Must have solid full-stack experience with Java, Spring, Spring Boot, RESTful APIs, and microservices

Experience designing and operating CI/CD pipelines

Experience with monitoring and observability tools (e.g., Splunk, AppDynamics, etc.)

Strong understanding of object-oriented design and software architecture principles

Experience working in agile development environments

Preferred Qualifications

10+ years of experience building and supporting enterprise-scale, customer-facing platforms

Experience with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), including AEM as a Cloud Service

Experience with headless or hybrid AEM architectures

Experience using AI assisted development tools in large engineering teams

Understanding of responsible AI principles in enterprise or consumer facing environments

Experience with cloud-based technologies like AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure

Experience with Confluence and Jira to document requirements, user stories and technical designs.

Required Education

Bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related discipline

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Orlando is $148,300.00 - $180,000.00 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.

Job Posting Segment:

DX Technology

Job Posting Primary Business:

Disney Signature Experiences

Primary Job Posting Category:

Software Engineer

Employment Type:

Full time

Primary City, State, Region, Postal Code:

Celebration, FL, USA

Alternate City, State, Region, Postal Code:

Date Posted:

2026-04-28