Principal Product Manager, AI/ML Payment Solutions

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we’re reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world’s most beloved stories while also redefining Disney’s media business for the future. Whether that’s evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to enhance flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney’s unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

• Building the future of Disney’s media business: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power Disney’s media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.

• Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day – from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.

• Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.
   

The Commerce, Growth & Identity (CGI) team is dedicated to three business-critical areas at Disney that will help transform its media business. They create seamless user experiences for consumers who can choose from a wide range of subscription plans, enabling more choice and flexibility. The CGI team is also focused on building innovative and pioneering capabilities that will drive subscriptions, engagement, and monetization across Disney’s streaming and digital products.

At Disney Entertainment, we are experiencing dramatic growth, reaching 225M total subscriptions globally across our streaming product portfolio. As we continue growing across all  our streaming services (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and Star+) we are looking for a product management leader that thrives in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and can meet opportunities and challenges head-on.

We’re seeking a Principal Product Manager to identify and build new AI/ML solutions for our payments systems across our streaming services worldwide - Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and Star+. These large-scale, distributed systems include a payments system that processes billions of dollars of transactions annually, a Pay-Per-View system that enables purchasing of hundreds of Live products per second, and so many more. In this highly impactful role, you’ll be providing leadership to a cross-functional team of engineers, data scientists, and other specialists.

The payments platform at Disney Entertainment has experienced tremendous growth - supporting over 80 countries and 20+ currencies. Yet, we’re still early on our mission to provide entertainment around the world and project significant growth ahead. We’re looking for a leader with an entrepreneurial spirit, who will take this growth ahead by embracing unconventional thinking and providing bigger and better ideas. Being part of a driven and enthusiastic team of growing products and product managers, you will get to make a direct material impact on the future of The Walt Disney Company.
 

Responsibilities:

● Define AI/ML principles, vision and strategy for multiple product areas in payments encompassing core processing, retry schedule, messaging frequency, etc.

● Drive prioritization of new features and enhancements based on financial benefit and engineering resource availability

● Implement and maintain the roadmap by working cross-functionally with members of the product team, engineering team, data science & analytics team, business team, finance team, legal team, operations team, marketing team, and more

● Lead high levels of complexity by collaborating with business leaders of adjacent domains like customer growth & acquisition, identity, lifecycle messaging, billing, etc. to negotiate and identify trade-offs that optimize business holistically

● Define KPIs for various product categories and align them to business goals while contributing to a broader set of metrics governing the entire business

● Challenge the status quo (THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!), and suggest new features and enhancements that not only solve tactical problems but also strategic problems

● Be a trusted authority in the domain and provide thought leadership; be an evangelist for the domain by speaking at internal/external forums like conferences, all-hands, etc.

● Be a visible champion for and role model of Disney values especially while leading teams through times of change

● Last but not least, fill in gaps across roles and functions as needed, performing as an adaptive problem solver, a creative builder and a morale-boosting leader
 

Basic Qualifications

● You have 8+ years of relevant work experience (4+ in AI/ML product management) with a Master’s or 10+ years of relevant work experience (4+ in AI/ML) with a Bachelor’s. AI/ML product management experience with direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, fintech and/or subscription services in domestic and/or international markets is preferred

● You inspire, motivate, and lead cross-functional partners (engineers, data scientists, etc.) working alongside you

● You have the ability to rigorously prioritize while articulating your product roadmap across business teams and geographies

● You have experience working on large, complex, distributed systems, and have a sound understanding of the technical architecture and infrastructure

● You have an understanding of statistics concepts (e.g., hypothesis testing, regression analysis, etc.), and experience with A/B testing on a large scale

● Ability to code in SQL, Python or R is a plus

● You communicate extraordinarily well - from small group discussions to large group presentations, and through strong product memos that help drive alignment across multiple teams

Required Education

Education in technology, data science or business domains. An undergraduate degree in computer science, engineering, data science, finance, economics or related disciplines is a plus, MBA preferred

 

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.

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA and Bristol, CT is $180,700 – $242,300 per year, in San Francisco is $197,900 - $242,300 and in NYC and Seattle is $189,300 - $253,800 per year based on a 40 hour work week. The amount of hours scheduled per week may vary based on business needs. 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.