Principal Software Development Engineer in Test - Disney Media Player

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role

• Define and drive the vision, strategy, and roadmap for test automation and quality engineering for the Disney Media Player across web, mobile, connected TV, and gaming console platforms.
• Influence organizational decisions regarding test architecture, process improvements, and adoption of modern testing paradigms (shift-left, CI/CD, observability, etc.).
• Establish and maintain enterprise-wide standards for quality, automation, and operational excellence in collaboration with executive stakeholders.
• Own the end-to-end quality strategy for large-scale, business-critical projects, including test metrics, release criteria, and automation objectives.
• Lead the architecture of scalable, resilient, and cross-device test automation solutions that empower teams and improve defect prevention.
• Make high-impact technical decisions on frameworks, toolsets, and integrations to enable richer and more effective testing.
• Oversee technical reviews, mentorship, and hands-on guidance in complex areas such as media player internals, cross-platform device testing, and streaming playback verification.
• Partner with client engineering, media platform, and device certification teams to ensure seamless integration of quality gates and automated validation throughout deployment pipelines.
• Serve as a coaching resource to SDETs, engineers, and leadership, regularly conducting technical deep-dives, training, and knowledge-sharing sessions.
• Build consensus across client and media platform teams for standardization of test tools, frameworks, and reusable components.
• Facilitate root cause analysis for high-severity incidents, drive preventative and corrective actions, and communicate technical findings to senior leadership.
• Represent DEEP & Technology quality interests within company-wide engineering and business forums.
• Lead delivery of multiple concurrent, cross-team testing initiatives in fast-paced Agile environments.
• Manage test budgets, resource allocation, roadmap goals, and risk mitigation strategies across programs.
• Ensure rigorous governance over traceability, compliance, and test reporting, supporting company-wide accountability.
• Continuously identify bottlenecks and drive organization-wide solutions to improve efficiency, coverage, and reliability.
• Champion research and adoption of emerging technologies (AI/ML in testing, autonomous testing, advanced observability, etc.) to keep test practices ahead of industry standards.
• Define and track advanced quality metrics (escape rates, flakiness, system reliability), implementing data-driven improvements.
• Lead efforts to mature organization’s quality posture in performance, security, and reliability engineering.
• Inspire a culture of innovation, experiment with new tools and practices, and help set the direction for the future of engineering quality.

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training

• Minimum of 10 years experience in quality engineering, automation, or software development, with recent leadership responsibilities in large, complex engineering environments.
• Passion around driving best practices in the testing space.
• Experience designing test strategies for client-side applications where hardware variability and platform fragmentation are key challenges.
• Familiarity with streaming media concepts (playback quality, ABR, DRM, codec behavior) or eagerness to develop domain expertise quickly.
• Proven expertise architecting and scaling test automation for distributed, cloud-native systems.
• Track record of influencing enterprise strategy and leading transformation initiatives.
• Advanced proficiency with JS/Node, Python and/or modern OO languages; experience with media player and/or pipeline systems is a plus.
• Experience building or managing test automation across multiple device platforms (smart TVs, set-top boxes, mobile, web, gaming consoles).
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and mentoring skills.
• Bachelor's Degree, preferably B.S. in Computer Science (or equivalent degree or work experience).