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OVERVIEW
Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology (DE&E Technology) is to delight consumers worldwide with the news, entertainment, and sports content they want most, with more choice, personalization, and convenience than ever before.
Comprised of Disney’s international media businesses and the Company’s streaming and linear services, the DEE Tech Engineering Services segment aligns technology, content, and distribution platforms to expand the Company’s global footprint to deliver world-class, personalized entertainment experiences to consumers around the world.
DEE Tech is responsible for The Walt Disney Company’s direct-to-consumer businesses globally, including the ESPN+ sports streaming service, programmed in conjunction with ESPN; Disney+, the Disney-branded direct-to-consumer streaming service; global advertising sales and ad technology for all of Disney’s media properties, including ABC, ESPN, Freeform, FX Networks, National Geographic, and the Disney Channels; HotStar, the leading over-the-top streaming service in India; and the Company’s majority ownership stake in Hulu.
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
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Oversee and direct the systems architecture team in modernizing our Disney legacy media production infrastructure systems through the identification of new technological innovations and advancements within the industry. (i.e., SMPTE ST 2110, 720p, 1080p, 4K, UHD, HDR, JPEG-XS, NDI, ProRes Raw, H.265, AV1), metadata conversion, audio mapping, system outages, microservices architecture tuning and related technical problems. Drive the overall investigative strategy to bring synergy and efficiency across Disney facilities and our overall broadcast ecosystem.
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Accountable for the vision and strategy of planning and executing on-prem and cloud-based broadcast production and infrastructure initiatives that support, acquisition, conditioning, monitoring, and distribution between and throughout all facilities of all content ingest and network distribution (linear, digital, and streaming platforms).
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Direct, oversee a team of systems architects to design and implement media technology environments, and new construction of facilities, upgrades that are aligned with industry standards for innovation and which allow DE&E Technology the ability to acquire, produce, store, stream, and distribute our content across all infrastructure.
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Lead and work closely with engineering services, operations’ leadership, and various internal teams to drive company priorities, business strategy and to develop broad-scale solutions to support broadcast facility’s needs, production workflows. Implement new cutting-edge technologies and define areas of innovation opportunity.
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Partner with our Portfolio and finance teams on project capital planning, forecasting, estimations, dependencies, business value and justification. Develops and take ownership of all project plans, schedules, deliverables, and spending.
QUALIFICATIONS
Minimum Qualifications:
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12+ years of demonstrated and relevant experience in leading others, managing complex on-air broadcast facilities, developing technical strategies ensuring efficient design/build, uptime, and overall stability of the technical environment.
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Bachelor’s Degree in electrical engineering, computer science, and/or equivalent 10+ years of work experience.
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Strong understanding of baseband/IP video, audio and digital compression, transport systems, audio/video encoding/transcoding techniques, transfer acceleration systems and formats.
Preferred Qualifications:
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Proficient with technologies like microservices, DevOps tools, design principles, practices, standards, and guidelines.
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Expert level knowledge and experience with on-prem and cloud-based storage and compute infrastructure platforms and current technological offerings. (Virtual machines, docker containers).
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File-based workflows like enterprise Media Asset Management systems (Cloud-based Cloud Compute or Local Network-based) including storage, compute, encode and distribution.
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Proficient with software development, scripting, and integration with 3rd party services via API. Experience with Java, servlets, web applications, Oracle SQL Experience (PL/SQL), MySQL experience is preferred.
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Expert level knowledge and experience with compression techniques such as MPEG2/4, HEVC, JPEG 2000, and JPEG XS.
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Working knowledge of DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP, HTTP, UDP, SSL, and SNMP.
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Proficiency in AutoCAD.
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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.
#DISNEYTECH
The hiring range for this position in Connecticut is $164,500 to $220,600 per year, in New York is $172,300 to $231,100 per year, and in Texas is $156,700 to $210,100 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.
