Lead Technical Program Manager

Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

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 transforming 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 maximize 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.

A few reasons why we think you’d love working for Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology:

• 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 execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Business Operations is the glue of DE&E Technology, with a relentless focus on connecting all the pieces of the business. All the components that make up the organization – engineering, product, design, operations, support and more – come together and move the business forward with oversight, effective prioritization, and guidance. This team synthesizes information from across the business to ensure leaders are armed with all the necessary data before making strategic and financial decisions. From forecasting, funding, tracking, and reporting on projects, to ways of working, and resource management, Business Operations has visibility and input into all aspects of the team.

This position resides within Engineering Program Management and supports the Media Supply Chain, Media Processing and Distribution organization responsible for encoding, encapsulating, and distributing live and VOD video, audio, media metadata, subtitles/captions, thumbnails, and ads for delivery to our audiences within Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and other globally prominent streaming products.

Job Summary:

The Technical Program Manager is responsible for driving deliverables for the live and VOD video Processing and Packaging Services team. This involves daily hands-on backlog/roadmap management of technology activities utilizing Agile and Scrum software development practices while balancing priorities and supporting on-time engineering execution. This also includes working with multiple technical teams and Product groups to effectively drive building, testing, and deploying cross-functional dependent services.

In addition, someone in this position is expected to drive cross-team programs that impact their domain, working closely with distributed engineering and project leads, architects, and product managers to estimate, schedule, track, report and ultimately deliver critical initiatives for the business.

This role requires a wide range of leadership competencies, technical experience, and communications skills. The Senior Technical Project Manager is responsible for delivering using Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology processes, tools and methodologies; this includes the development of the scope of work and the management of time, work-breakdown, cost, risk, and communications.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

Drive discovery, planning, and execution of domain software from start to finish, including management of cross-functional touchpoints across technical teams, including:

• Orchestrate team ceremonies, while contributing to positive team dynamics, morale and motivation that builds a culture where all members and points of view are respected
• Call and run meetings to conclusion and/or actionable outcome, including with groups of people beyond the immediate team
• Document decisions/results/notes professionally and in a timely manner
• Leverage experience with Agile and Scrum to manage releases and balance task priorities across multiple projects
• Solve complex problems rapidly in a challenging, dynamic environment with minimal direction
• Partner with engineering leadership on team process perpetually across sprints/projects/programs
• Communicate with transparency and regularity to business and technical senior management, delivery teams and stakeholders regarding project highlights and overall health
• Convey complex and/or difficult information effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences, including Executives
• Influence key decision-makers/stakeholders towards new business processes and technical solutions that best serve The Walt Disney Company

Deliver quality solutions that provide desired business goals and/or solve reported issues on-time and within budget:

• Dive into technical details, understanding and providing input on overall technical designs
• Identify scope of technical inputs and outputs as dependencies for other engineering teams
• Lead engineering teams through the identification and timely management of risks and the resolution of issues, escalating to management as appropriate
• Produce actionable tickets that inform engineering and quality assurance of desired outputs, utilizing Global Program Management standards to tag project work for effective status rollup
• Triage open/backlog items prior to sprint planning; collect and track sizing estimates for burndown reports; gain experience from past sizing and be comfortable sizing independent of engineering
• Collaborate with product partners to help define/scope feature requirements and work with software architects, technical leads, and product to determine how best to build our engineering solution and meet our overall requirements

​Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience managing progressively complex, modern application software development projects
• Talent leading virtual meetings with distributed teams, including executive sponsors, business partners and dependent service organizations
• Expert with project management tools, including: Confluence, JIRA, Smartsheets, Airtable
• Proficiency in Agile Project Management methods; including Scrum and/or Kanban

Preferred Qualifications:

• Extensive knowledge of distributed application software development life cycle, including microservices deployed into AWS as well as on-premise data centers
• Prior experience with or understanding of video processing & media streaming technologies
• Established experience with, or a willingness to rapidly learn back-end streaming media concepts and formats, such as Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) encoding, encryption, HLS, CMAF, AC3 and HEVC
• Growing understanding of content distribution network (CDN) technologies/providers and commonalities for an upstream media provider

Required Education:

• BA/BS or equivalent experience required 

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA is $152,200.00 to $204,100.00 per year and in Seattle, WA and New York, NY is $156,300.00 to $209,600.00 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.