Director, Software Engineering - ML Research & Forecasting

Technology is at the heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, data scientists, and more – all working to build and advance the technological backbone for Disney’s media business globally.

The team marries technology with creativity to build world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and scalability for our businesses. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with every part of The Walt Disney Company’s media portfolio to advance the technological foundation and consumer media touch points serving millions of people around the world. 

Here are a few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

• Building the future of Disney’s media: Our Technologists are designing and building the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
• Reach, Scale & Impact: More than ever, Disney’s technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans' connections with the company’s brands and stories. Disney+. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and events they carry – matter to millions of people globally. 
• Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and distinctive technical problems.

The Research, Forecasting and Experimentation org within Ad Platforms is focused towards transforming Disney's Ad platform with data and AI across TV and streaming video. We build solutions to measure and optimize every aspect of the advertising life cycle and viewer experience. Our tenant is a strong cross-domain team to deliver E2E solutions covering tech areas ranging from machine learning, big data, microservices to data visualization.

Our team is seeking a Director, Software Engineering, who will lead the research and machine learning platform, experimentation and inventory forecasting teams. This group focuses on solving the challenging optimization and research problems to accelerate the Disney’s ad business. The right person for this role should have extensive experience in machine learning, leading highly productive teams that own these domains and a good understanding of ad business. If you are someone who is proactive, detail-oriented, data driven with a structured approach to problem solving, this is a phenomenal role for you!

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Directs and leads the Research and Machine Learning Platform, Inventory Forecasting, Simulation, and Experimentation teams. This includes developing the teams, creating organizational plans, hiring, and fostering a strong team culture.
• Oversees Disney's high-performing systems for these functions, enabling data-driven decision-making and experimentation.
• Formulates the strategies and operating plans, communicates strategy and vision to the team and provides guidance and direction to the organization to ensure business objectives are achieved. Obtains and allocates engineers/staff to meet operating plans and takes ownership of interacting with senior management to keep abreast of function objectives.
• Directs and enables the team in identifying and sharing insights from platform performance metrics to influence roadmap discussions with Product and other stakeholders, driving significant business value and impact.
• Conducts ongoing assessment of software engineering needs and drives groundbreaking innovation by applying strong and deep data analysis to challenging problems. Develop novel, scalable, and efficient methods for large-scale data analysis and model development.
• Accountable for learning and applying state of the art AI and machine learning statistics or analytics in a variety of areas to boost every aspect of advertising, i.e. inventory forecasting, planning, pricing, targeting, decisioning, efficient ad delivery, ad experiences and viewer experience in collaboration with the architecture team.
• Build consensus, communicate and collaborate with partner teams on scope of work and technology directions. Proactively address and solve cross-team issues, foster teamwork and collaborations.

WHAT TO BRING

• 12+ years of experience managing technology teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience
• Experience in online advertising or larger scale digital marketing
• A track record of talent leading and development for an organization of significant size
• A track record of delivering large-scale, high-quality internet and data products, building technology roadmaps and drive product design, development, launch to success
• Experience and expertise in machine learning, and other AI technologies
• Experience working in agile development environments
• Influencing skills including indirect influence, leading with vision and value
• Good analytical skills, ability to solve complex problems through analytics and data-driven approach to decision making

NICE-TO-HAVES

• Experience with feature store, audience segmentation and MLOps
• Experience with search ads, and performance-based ads
• Experience with Pytorch and Databricks

Location:

• 4 days/week in office - Santa Monica / San Francisco / Seattle

The hiring range for this position in San Francisco, CA is $245,100 - $328,600 per year, in Seattle, WA is $234,400 - $314,300 per year, and in Los Angeles, CA area is $223,700 - $300,000. 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.