Senior Manager, SDET

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.

About the role

The DEEP & Technology team is seeking a highly experienced Senior Manager (M3) to lead and scale our Quality Engineering organization supporting various commerce, data, and advertising systems. In this role, you will provide strategic, operational, and technical leadership across multiple quality engineering teams, ensuring robust test automation, reliability, and business impact at scale. You will develop and execute a quality strategy that drives measurable improvement in system reliability, speed of delivery, and product excellence, partnering closely with executives, engineering leadership, and cross-functional business units. Ideal candidates are visionary people leaders with a proven track record of growing high-performing teams, implementing transformational quality programs, and delivering significant value in complex and rapidly evolving environments.

Responsibilities

• Organizational Leadership & Transformation
  • Lead, inspire, and develop multiple quality engineering teams and people leaders (managers/technical leads), fostering a culture of technical excellence, inclusion, and continuous learning.
  • Define the multi-year vision and strategic roadmap for quality engineering across the advertising platform, aligned with company business and technology goals.
  • Champion organizational transformation, driving the adoption of best-in-class practices, tools, and quality metrics at scale.
• Technical Thought Leadership
  • Set the technical direction for large-scale test automation architecture, cloud-native solutions, and intelligent testing initiatives (AI/ML-driven testing, autonomous pipelines, etc.).
  • Sponsor and guide the evolution of shared automation frameworks, tools, and platforms across product and engineering teams.
  • Ensure timely resolution and prevention of high-severity outages through organizational postmortems, root cause analysis, and systemic improvements.
• Strategic Planning & Execution
  • Develop, communicate, and execute the quality engineering strategy across multiple product groups, balancing innovation, risk, and operational needs.
  • Oversee resource planning, hiring, and organizational design to ensure scaling and allocation of quality engineering talent to meet evolving business needs.
  • Take ultimate responsibility for quality governance, compliance, and traceability across all product lines within your scope.
• Cross-Functional & Executive Partnership
  • Build and maintain strong working relationships with senior leadership in engineering, product management, data science, product operations, and business teams.
  • Articulate quality risks, trade-offs, and long-term strategies to executive stakeholders; provide regular reporting on quality metrics and organizational outcomes.
  • Lead cross-functional initiatives to ensure test automation and quality engineering are embedded early and effectively throughout the development lifecycle.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in software quality engineering, test automation, or software development, with 5+ years managing managers or leading multi-team organizations
• Proven track record of scaling and transforming quality engineering functions in complex, cloud-native, high-scale environments
• Demonstrated experience defining and driving organizational strategy, advocating for quality at the senior/executive level, and influencing business outcomes
• Expertise in modern test automation frameworks, CI/CD, and emerging trends in software quality
• Knowledge of software engineering practices and agile approaches
• Strong desire for establishing and improving product quality
• Experience conducting security and performance tests for identity and access management systems and platforms
• Hands-on experience testing (manual and automated) identity and access management systems and platforms
• Advanced proficiency with Python or modern OO languages; experience with ad-tech or large-scale systems is a plus
• Willingness to take challenges head on while being part of a team
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and mentoring skills
• B.S. in Computer Science (or equivalent degree or work experience)

Pay

The hiring range for this position in Morrisville, NC is $163,400 - $219,100. 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.