Job Summary:

The Team

Walt Disney Imagineering’s Research & Development organization is building a new Intelligent Interactive Character Studio to take the most well-known characters in the world and turn them into interactive experiences for a new generation of fans and guests. The team is comprised of a cross disciplinary group of designers, writers, artists, and software engineers. Its charter includes developing a robust and scalable entertainment platform supporting interactive character experiences with up to millions of concurrent users. The studio develops mobile, VR, AR, Mixed Reality, and custom physically situated applications built on a core platform, independently and in partnership with 3rd party developers.

The Role

We’re seeking a Senior Tools Developer to design, implement, and maintain a software toolchain for the creation of incredible new interactive character experiences. In collaboration withconversational designers at the Intelligent Interactive Character Studio, you will define and create the software that enables our world class artists and designers to bring our characters to life and connect with our guests in new ways. You are highly collaborative, flexible, and scrappy, while ensuring a high degree of polish for guest-facing products and experiences. You are willing to take the time necessary to understand creative goals and propose and effectively communicate solutions. Members of the new studio are expected to thrive in a fast-paced, startup-style environment where ambiguity and building things from zero to one are the norm.

Responsibilities:

• Lead development of a production pipeline and related tooling to deliver robust, scalable interactive character experiences integrating internal and externally developed AI/ML tools for speech, language, and other domains.
• Compile and understand system requirements and assess their feasibility to enhance the character experience production pipeline
• Analyze existing features in the engine and available tools and suggest improvements by designing and implementing new systems whenever necessary
• Support the features and systems designed for production: production workflows in the engine, plugins for third-party applications and productivity tools (compilation, build process, etc.)
• Produce tool documentation to educate production talent on tool features and usage
• Work with a production-oriented mindset, delivering efficient, scalable, and maintainable code.
• Communicate complex technical, architectural, and/or organizational problems and propose thorough iterative solutions.
• Deliver maintainable code in a dynamic development environment with rapidly changing requirements.
• Conduct code reviews of peers and contribute feedback to improve overall system quality.
• Write unit tests
• Confidently ship small to medium scale features on your own, with minimal guidance and oversight from other team members.
• Specification, design and development of tools for creating, modifying, testing and deploying interactive AI systems.
• Work with content creators and designers to identify and develop features that speed up their character creation process.
• Designing, prototyping, and deploying tools which leverage machine learning to provide non-technical users an intuitive interface for building autonomous characters.

Basic Qualifications:

• Expertise with multiple modern programming languages including Python, C++ or Javascript.
• Experience with container orchestration tooling (Docker, Marathon)
• Knowledge of common developer tools such as git, CMake, package management systems.
• Familiarity with Unix based operating systems.
• Experience working in a collaborative development environment and a shared codebase.
• Expertise with game engines such as Unreal Engine or Unity.
• Familiarity with game engine tooling and workflows.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Understanding of game design or interactive experience design.
• Familiarity with NLP tools and/or other ML based conversational AI design technologies and their inherent limitations
• Experience with key machine learning libraries such as PyTorch or Tensorflow.
• Experience integrating and deploying machine learning in a relevant domain – computer vision, natural language, speech processing.
• Familiarity with 3D content creation tools such as Maya or 3DSMax

Required Education

• MS in Computer Science or equivalent with 3+ years industry/academic experience or BS in Computer Science or equivalent with 5+ years industry experience.

Additional Information:

Benefits and Perks: 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

About Walt Disney Imagineering:

Founded in 1952 as WED Enterprises to design and build the world’s first theme park — Disneyland — Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) is where imagination and creativity combine with cutting-edge technology to create unforgettable experiences. WDI is the creative force that imagines, designs and builds all Disney theme parks, resorts, attractions and cruise ships worldwide. Imagineering’s unique strength comes from its diverse global team of creative and technical professionals, who build on Disney’s legacy of storytelling to pioneer new forms of entertainment. The Imagineers who practice this unique blend of art and science work in more than 100 disciplines to shepherd an idea all the way from “blue sky” concept phase to opening day.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with the following business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney’s stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

This position is with Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., which is part of a business segment we call Walt Disney Imagineering.

Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Disney fosters a business culture where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a rapidly changing world.