Lead Software Engineer - AI

About the role

About the Role

The Lead Software Engineer will lead the development and implementation of custom and commercial software projects supporting cast and guest experiences at Disney Experiences. This role combines hands-on software engineering with technical leadership, AI-assisted engineering practices, platform strategy, and team mentorship.

The primary focus is modern front-end engineering and the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) platform, while maintaining full-stack responsibility across back-end systems, APIs, microservices, and integrations. The role partners with Product, UX, Content, Design, and Business stakeholders to deliver scalable, secure, accessible, and high-performing digital experiences.

Key Responsibilities

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

Define front-end architecture, including rendering strategies, component architecture, and data/state patterns.

Lead platform upgrades, security, performance, reliability, and scalability initiatives.

Establish front-end engineering standards, quality gates, CI/CD expectations, and development best practices.

Build and govern reusable components, templates, workflows, content models, UI libraries, and design-system capabilities.

Write, review, and optimize production-quality JavaScript and TypeScript code.

Provide hands-on technical leadership for React and Angular implementations.

Champion web performance, accessibility (WCAG), SEO, and responsive design.

Partner with Product, UX, Design, and Content teams to translate designs into scalable solutions.

Enable AI-assisted content workflows such as tagging, summarization, and optimization with appropriate governance and quality controls.

Introduce AI-enhanced capabilities such as intelligent search, recommendations, conversational interfaces, and personalization where appropriate.

Design and review APIs, microservices, and back-end integrations.

Define secure and reliable integration strategies with internal systems and third-party services.

Contribute across the full technology stack to resolve complex technical challenges and accelerate delivery.

Collaborate on cloud-native and AI solution patterns with architecture teams.

Ensure alignment across front-end, services, and infrastructure for performance, reliability, and observability.

Drive adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices, including agentic IDEs, code assistants, and AI pair programming.

Establish trust-but-verify standards for AI-generated code, including validation, security review, refactoring, and maintainability.

Expand SDLC automation through AI for testing, documentation, code reviews, and CI/CD improvements.

Lead code reviews and address technical debt through hands-on engineering and backlog planning.

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

Guide estimation, planning, and delivery of complex initiatives.

Ensure CI/CD, monitoring, logging, and observability are incorporated into solutions.

Review and approve solution designs and technical documentation.

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

Provide technical leadership to onshore and offshore development teams.

Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing engineering culture.

Required Qualifications

7+ years of professional software engineering experience.

Demonstrated ability to lead technical decision-making and influence architecture across teams.

Experience aligning engineering solutions with business outcomes.

Demonstrated success using AI coding assistants, agentic IDEs, or AI pair programming to improve delivery speed and quality.

Experience implementing AI-enabled SDLC automation across testing, code review, documentation, and CI/CD with measurable outcomes.

Strong trust-but-verify discipline when using AI-generated code, including validation, security, refactoring, and governance.

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

Strong expertise in JavaScript and TypeScript.

Hands-on experience with Node.js, React, and Angular in large-scale applications.

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 such as Splunk and AppDynamics.

Strong understanding of object-oriented design and software architecture principles.

Experience working in agile development environments.

Commitment to supporting a diverse and inclusive engineering culture.

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 within large engineering teams.

Understanding of responsible AI principles in enterprise or consumer-facing environments.

Experience with AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure.

Experience using Confluence and Jira for requirements, user stories, and technical designs.

Skills & Competencies

JavaScript and TypeScript

Node.js

React

Angular

Java

Spring and Spring Boot

RESTful APIs

Microservices

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

AI-assisted software development

AI coding assistants and agentic IDEs

SDLC automation

CI/CD

Cloud technologies

Monitoring and observability

Software architecture

Object-oriented design

Agile development

Technical leadership and mentoring

Responsible AI governance

Web performance, accessibility, SEO, and responsive design

Education & Experience

Required Education:

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

Required Experience:

7+ years of professional software engineering experience.

Preferred Experience:

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

Work Arrangement & Schedule

Location: Celebration, Florida, US

Work Arrangement: Hybrid

Remote Work: Not available; candidates must be located in the area or willing to relocate.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary: USD $148,300–$180,000

Additional benefits are not specified in the provided job description.

Compliance / Additional Information

This position supports high-visibility, guest-facing digital platforms within Disney Experiences.

The role requires collaboration with Product, UX, Content, Design, Business, architecture, and engineering teams.

Responsible and governed use of AI-assisted engineering tools is a core expectation of the position.

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