Manager, Software Engineering – BI & Analytics

About the role

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.

Responsibilities

• Instill a culture grounded in engineering best practices such as code quality, documentation, automation, and continuous improvement
• Ensure engineering principles are consistently applied across projects and teams
• Manage, mentor, and grow a team of high-performing software and data engineers, fostering a collaborative and innovative culture
• Collaborate with Product Management to align engineering roadmaps with product initiatives and timelines
• Partner with Program Managers to drive planning, prioritization, and delivery of cross-functional efforts
• Collaborate with QA leadership to build data quality processes and end-to-end validation
• Lead and grow a high-performing team of software and data engineers working on mission-critical data products
• Set engineering roadmaps, delivery timelines, and platform-level initiatives
• Drive adoption of best-in-class tools and practices for data governance, lineage, observability, and cost optimization
• Provide technical guidance and career development for the team
• Collaborate with senior leadership to define data strategy and long-term architecture vision
• Manage capacity planning, resource allocation, and performance reviews
• Lead vendor/tool evaluations and oversee key integration efforts
• Partner with BI and analytics leads to ensure consistent, reliable data is delivered across the enterprise
• Spearhead the implementation of custom dashboards and analytics UIs, leveraging modern web frameworks (React, Angular, Vue, etc.), advanced data visualization, and design system best practices
• Rapidly prototype UI components tailored to stakeholder/business requirements, ensuring high standards for usability, accessibility, and visual polish
• Drive the integration of AI/ML solutions into both backend pipelines and analytics products; champion the use of AI-powered software development processes and robust, end-to-end SDLC practices

Requirements

• Languages: Scala, Python, SQL, JavaScript
• Data Processing: Apache Spark, Flink, Airflow
• Platforms & Tools: Databricks, Hive, Presto, Snowflake
• Cloud: AWS (S3, EMR, Glue, Lambda)
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant software engineering, data engineering or data science – preferably with a digital media or digital advertising company
• Experience delivering products in an agile software development environment including sprint work in Jira
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate and partner across multiple teams and organizations
• Strong SQL experience including writing/optimizing complex queries against distributed data stores such as Aurora, Hadoop, Hive, Oracle, and Snowflake
• Experience with data pipeline and workflow management tools: Apache NiFi or Apache Airflow
• Expert level knowledge in at least one programming language such as Python, R, Scala, Java
• Demonstrated experience working with business intelligence tools such as MicroStrategy, Tableau, Business Objects, Looker, etc.
• Strong experience building and deploying dashboards and UIs with frameworks such as React, Angular, or Vue
• Demonstrated ability to quickly prototype and implement custom UI components to meet evolving business/stakeholder specs
• Familiarity with AI-powered solution development and integrating machine learning into production data/analytics environments
• Strong software development life cycle (SDLC) management experience, including source control, CI/CD, and agile workflows (Jira)
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to technical and unacquainted audiences
• Experience in working with large datasets (Terabytes or more)
• Strong presentation and documentation skills including experience working with Confluence, Power Point, and Lucid Chart
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
• Enjoy working collaboratively with a talented group of people to tackle challenging business problems so we all succeed (or fail fast) as a team

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing, building and supporting Business Intelligence (BI) data platforms, dashboards, and reporting environments
• Experience in Ad Tech, particularly Linear or Addressable Advertising
• Experience with digital advertising systems and ecosystems
• Experience using data analytics to triage and troubleshoot advertising workflows
• Experience with network topologies, systems architecture overviews, and entity relationship diagrams (ERD)
• Experience with rapid prototyping and agile delivery of analytics products

About Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

At Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology, we’re blending imagination and innovation to reimagine the ways people experience and engage with the world’s most beloved stories and products. Our work is wide-ranging and deeply sophisticated. We create amazing experiences, transform the future of media, and build products and platforms that enable the connection between people everywhere and the stories and sports they love.

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 that includes three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. 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.