Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager, Ad Platforms

Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager, Ad Platforms 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. Here are a few reasons why you'd love working here: Building the future of Disney's media: Our technologists design and build the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come. Reach, scale & impact: Our technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans' connections with the company’s brands and stories. Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and solve complex technical problems. The Ad Platforms organization is responsible for building, enhancing, and maintaining a high-performance, distributed, microservice-based advertising platform across all Disney online properties, including Hulu and ESPN+. The mission is to advance AI and machine learning capabilities across Ad Platforms by delivering scalable, high-impact AI/ML and data science solutions that enhance ad serving. Job Summary You will lead a team of data scientists, machine learning and AI engineers to design and build scalable, performant, maintainable, and testable models and pipelines. You will guide the team with deep technical knowledge of ML and AI technologies and leadership skills, ensuring best practices and close collaboration with product and engineering stakeholders. Key Expectations Strong communication and collaboration across teams and systems. Passion for mentoring, learning, and tackling new challenges. Ability to translate product requirements into technical implementations and define metrics to measure system health. Eye for optimizations and enhancements and a pragmatic, optimistic approach. Deep understanding of model development cycles and AI tool usage. Responsibilities and Duties Lead, mentor, and guide senior ICs and managers across data science, ML, and AI teams to deliver scalable solutions. Define strategic direction for machine learning projects and collaborate with product and engineering stakeholders. Champion best practices in model development, code quality, testing, and documentation. Oversee end-to-end ML workflow: data collection, model development, deployment, and monitoring. Explore new ML techniques, tools, and technologies. Communicate strategy, progress, and results to leadership and cross-functional teams. Ensure responsible AI practices, including fairness, explainability, and privacy compliance. Develop partnerships across the organization to prioritize high-impact ML opportunities. Participate in on-call rotations as required. Basic Qualifications Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, engineering, mathematics, statistics, or related field. 10+ years of industry experience, with at least 5 years of people-management experience leading senior ICs and managers. Proven ability to translate business problems into scalable ML and GenAI solutions. Experience designing, building, and deploying production-grade ML models and systems. Experience deploying ML/GenAI systems at scale using cloud platforms and MLOps practices. Advanced programming proficiency (Python, Java, or similar) and experience with ML/DL frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX, Hugging Face). Experience with LLM-based systems, including RAG, prompt engineering, and model optimization. Demonstrated ability to lead global teams and collaborate across organizational boundaries. Preferred Qualifications Domain knowledge in the Ad Tech industry. Experience with large-scale data and distributed systems. Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and MLOps pipelines. Track record of innovation and contributions to the ML/AI community (publications, talks, open source). Compensation For this position in Los Angeles, CA the hiring range is $207,400 – $278,100 per year. For Seattle it is $217,300 – $291,500 per year. Base pay will be determined by internal equity and candidate qualifications. Equal Employment Opportunity The Walt Disney Company and its affiliated companies are Equal Opportunity Employers and welcome job seekers with disabilities and veterans. If you need a reasonable accommodation to apply, please visit our disability accommodations page. #J-18808-Ljbffr The Walt Disney Company (Germany) GmbH