Staff Product Manager (Legal)

At Disney, we’re storytellers. We make the impossible, possible. The Walt Disney Company is a world-class entertainment and technological leader. Walt’s passion was to continuously envision new ways to move audiences around the world—a passion that remains our touchstone in an enterprise that stretches from theme parks, resorts and a cruise line to sports, news, movies and a variety of other businesses. Uniting each endeavor is a commitment to creating and delivering unforgettable experiences — and we’re constantly looking for new ways to enhance these exciting experiences.

The Enterprise Technology mission is to deliver technology solutions that align to business strategies while enabling enterprise efficiency and promoting cross-company collaborative innovation. Our group drives competitive advantage by enhancing our consumer experiences, enabling business growth, and advancing operational excellence.

Team Description:

The Corporate Technology group is part of the Products organization, responsible for delivering and supporting the technology that powers TWDC’s corporate functions, enterprise workflows, and service management platforms. Our scope spans the entire product lifecycle — from setting strategy and roadmaps to overseeing project delivery, engineering, and ongoing support. Through these efforts, we drive digital transformation across our business, workforce, and technology communities.

We partner with a diverse range of internal corporate teams — including Brand Management, Corporate Communications, Corporate Real Estate, Corporate Social Responsibility, Global Labor & Product Standards, Global Security, Investor Relations, Management Audit, Legal & Global Affairs, and Supply Chain Compliance, Trade Management, & Logistics. Additionally, these solutions extend to our segment partners, ensuring a cohesive and connected technology experience across the company.

Responsibilities of Role:

The Staff Product Manager is a senior individual contributor responsible for defining and driving the strategy, planning, and execution oversight for a portfolio of internal technology products. With a deep understanding of business needs and technology capabilities, this role partners closely with business stakeholders, engineering teams, and senior leaders to deliver solutions that generate measurable business value. The Staff Product Manager serves as the strategic owner for multiple complex products, overseeing the entire product lifecycle from ideation to operations, and acting as the primary liaison between Corporate Technology and our customers to deliver world class solutions. This role requires strong product leadership, cross-functional influence, and a balance of strategic vision with pragmatic execution.

Product Strategy & Vision

• Partner with Legal Operations to identify metrics-based business cases and ROI while analyzing and optimizing existing technology-related processes to improve workflow and productivity within the legal department

• Stay updated on emerging legal technologies and trends to help the department remain at the forefront of innovation

• Collaborate with Legal Operations to identify technology needs and work with technology staff and other areas in and outside of Disney to identify solutions that support legal strategies, ultimately supporting the creation and maintenance of 3-5-year legal technology roadmaps.

• Act as a domain expert across multiple product areas or business domains, using data, user insights, and market knowledge to guide decisions

• Develop core product positioning, messaging, and strategic narratives that communicate product value to executive stakeholders

Product Planning & Delivery Oversight

• Create and maintain 12- to 24-month product roadmaps that deliver measurable business value

• Oversee the development of product requirement documents (PRDs), prioritizing features based on user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility

• Manage the full product lifecycle, from ideation and discovery through development, launch, sustainment, and retirement or replacement

• Collaborate with agile delivery teams and Product Owners to ensure successful planning and execution of product initiatives

• Lead cross-functional product initiatives or special projects requiring complex coordination and strategic influence

Stakeholder & Partner Engagement

• Build trusted relationships with business partners and segment leaders, serving as a collaborative partner for decisions related to product direction and prioritization

• Lead and/or participate in commercial contract terms negotiations with technology vendors

• Facilitate ongoing alignment between enterprise technology and business partners to ensure products meet evolving compliance needs while continuing to deliver strategic value

• Collaborate with various internal and external stakeholders to gather and consolidate all the information needed to present project funding requests to key executives

• Serve as an escalation point for complex business inquiries, stakeholder concerns, and cross-team dependencies

Product Value Management, Market Awareness & Competitive Landscape

• Partner with Legal Operations and legal technology vendors to share, manage, and prioritize internal capability needs from vendors’ products while aligning with and influencing vendor roadmaps

• Manage relationships with legal technology vendors, acting as an escalation point to help remove obstacles and partner at higher levels within the vendor organizations to influence creative solutions, quality, and expedience

• Maintain an understanding of the competitive landscape, industry trends, and alternative products

• Conduct landscape analyses and deliver executive-level presentations to inform strategic planning and product positioning

• Partner with Legal Operations to lead or support product pilots and beta programs to validate market fit and refine offerings based on feedback

Financial Planning & Resource Management

• Partner with business stakeholders and the technology organization to develop the 5 year plan and annual operating budgets

• Manage product budgets and resource forecasts, collaborating with Finance and the PMO to ensure alignment with investment plans

• Partner with leadership to develop internal product cost models and charge-back frameworks that support sustainable operations

• Track product budget performance and adjust forecasts based on licensing consumption, delivery progress, scope changes, and business needs

Leadership, Coaching & Standards Development

• Contribute to the maturity of the product management discipline by sharing best practices, frameworks, and templates across teams

• Mentor product owners, and business analysts to elevate product thinking and delivery capability

Key Attributes

Thinks Strategically

• Stays current on business domain trends and technological advances

• Uses knowledge of the company’s products and services to meet customer needs and financial targets

• Identifies key business opportunities and challenges

• Examines issues from a broad perspective, considering impact beyond immediate scope

• Makes sound business decisions that balance competing priorities

• Able to see the “forest” as well as the individual “trees” – can articulate how specific situations relate to strategy or big picture problems

Builds Relationships

• Acts as the voice of the customer by understanding their business strategies and aligning business needs with the product strategy and roadmap

• Interacts well with people who have different backgrounds and work styles

• Resolves conflicts effectively

• Service mindset with ability to facilitate “win-win” solutions, but not afraid to say “no”

• Manages the diverse needs of stakeholders

• Engages colleagues across the organization to optimize performance

• Manages strategic partnerships and executive-level relationships across a large enterprise and within the related industry

Communicates Effectively

• Conveys relevant information in a candid and timely manner

• Listens and asks questions to ensure understanding

• Tailors messages appropriately to the audience

• Effectively persuades others to support ideas and plans

• Provides the appropriate rational and content to drive commitment

Drives Results

• Keeps Commitments

• Uses technology to facilitate better results

• Analyzes problems and takes action to resolve

• Achieves high levels of customer satisfaction

• Holds self and others accountable to high standards

• Is metrics and data driven

• Oversees project success and resource management to produce desired outcomes

• Develops appropriate metrics to assess business performance

• Plans, organizes and delegates effectively, to ensure focus on strategic activities

Inspires Creativity and Innovation

• Conceives creative ideas to solve problems or meet objectives

• Demonstrates a positive attitude with contagious enthusiasm

• Challenges the status quo

• Transfers ideas and success across boundaries

• Facilitates the exchange of ideas and creation of new ones

• Takes risks and manages them intelligently

• Proactively looks for new opportunities

• Sets product vision and creates enduring excitement about what is possible

Champions Change

• Delivers consistent results in evolving a continuously evolving environment

• Demonstrates flexibility in response to changes

• Supports new initiatives

• Coache others through change

Builds Teams

• Supports productivity and morale of the team

• Strengthens others through mentoring and feedback

• Recognizes and rewards the achievements of others

• Broadly shares both accountability and responsibility

• Creates “constructive discomfort” — encouraging performance beyond what others believe they can realize

Exhibits Professional Excellence

• Treats others with respect

• Earns the trust of colleagues, partners and customers

• Maintains composure under pressure

• Strives for self-improvement

• Learns from personal and organizational experiences

• Shows consistency in words and actions

• Sets a good example for others

Must Haves:

Product Strategy & Vision

• Minimum of 7 years of experience managing complex products within a large, multi-national corporation

• Demonstrated experience in legal technology and operations

• Demonstrated ability to define multi-year product strategies and roadmaps that align with business goals

• Experience acting as a strategic thought partner to business stakeholders and translating vision into executable plans

• Strong understanding of legal document management, matter management, contract management, knowledge management, and spend management

Product Planning & Delivery Oversight

• Hands-on experience overseeing the full product lifecycle, from ideation through sustainment

• Proven ability to prioritize features based on value, feasibility, and dependencies within a dynamic delivery environment

• Strong working knowledge of agile product delivery, including backlog management, sprint planning, and value delivery tracking

• Experience partnering with engineering, architecture, and delivery teams to ensure product quality and timely execution

• Demonstrated experience with agile frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban) and agile backlog management tools (e.g., Jira, ADO)

• Familiarity with ITIL principles and working knowledge of SLAs, KPIs, and system performance tracking

Stakeholder & Partner Engagement

• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills with a track record of building trusted relationships across levels

• Experience representing product teams with executive stakeholders, facilitating alignment and navigating competing priorities

• Demonstrated ability to lead business discovery efforts, co-create solutions with partners, and manage feedback loops

• Experience in managing relationships with legal technology vendors and negotiating contract terms

Market Awareness & Competitive Landscape

• Strong analytical skills and experience conducting product, competitor, or industry landscape assessments

• Ability to synthesize complex market data and translate findings into actionable product strategy adjustments

• Experience running product pilots or beta programs, capturing learnings, and adapting roadmaps based on insights

• Comfortable delivering strategic briefings and deep-dive presentations to senior audiences

Financial Planning & Resource Management

• Experience managing product budgets, forecasts, and resource allocation in collaboration with finance and PMO partners

• Skilled in developing cost models and internal charge-back structures to support funding strategies

• Ability to balance product investment with operational constraints, making data-driven tradeoff decisions

• Experience managing relationships with third-party vendors and external partners

• Understanding of contract terms, licensing agreements, and vendor performance tracking

Leadership, Coaching & Standards Development

• Track record of sharing learnings with fellow product managers, while mentoring senior product owners, or analysts within a product organization

• Demonstrated ability to elevate product management maturity through sharing frameworks, playbooks, and best practices

• Experience leading large cross-functional initiatives that span teams, systems, or business lines

• Operates with a high degree of autonomy and regularly influences through informal leadership across the organization

Nice To Haves:

• ITIL Foundation Certification or advanced certifications for on ITIL v3 or later

• Certifications in agile software development methodologies (PMI-ACP, CSPO, SAFe PO/PM, ICP-ACC, etc.)

• Other advanced product, platform, or agile courses/certifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience.

Preference for Master’s or advanced degree Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, Business, or comparable field of study in a related discipline.

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in California is $138,900 - $186,200 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.