Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager, Ad Platforms

Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager, Ad Platforms Job ID 10152780 Location Seattle, Washington, United States / Santa Monica, California, United States Business Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology Date posted Jun. 03, 2026 Job Summary Ad Platforms organization within Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology is fully responsible for building, enhancing and maintaining high-performance, distributed, microservice-based Advertising Platform across all of Disney online properties, including Hulu and ESPN+. The role seeks a Senior Manager Machine Learning to lead an ML/AI team focused on delivering scalable, high‑impact AI/ML and data science solutions that enhance ad serving. You will apply your battle‑tested experience, deep technical knowledge of software and systems including Machine Learning and AI technologies, and leadership skills to unblock and guide our ML/AI team members to design and build scalable, performant, maintainable, and testable models and pipelines in various domains using industry best practices. Daily Focus A willingness and desire to effectively communicate and collaborate across teams and systems on architecture, design, and implementation. A passion for mentoring, learning, and taking on new challenges. A proven ability to work with product teams to translate requirements into well‑defined technical implementations. The ability to define technical and operational metrics to measure system health. A keen eye for potential optimizations and enhancements. Kindness and pragmatic optimism. A deep understanding of model development cycles and AI tool usage. Responsibilities and Duties of the Role Lead, mentor and guide senior individual contributors and managers across data scientists, machine learning and AI engineers teams to build solutions adhering to industry best practices and deliver scalable solutions including model architecture and algorithm selection. Define strategic direction for machine learning projects and collaborate with product and engineering stakeholders. Lead by example and always strive to improve design for more scalable, cleaner, and decoupled implementations. Drive adoption of best practices in model development, code quality, testing, and documentation. Communicate strategies, progress, and results to leadership and cross‑functional teams. Ensure responsible AI practices, including fairness, explainability, and compliance with privacy and ethical standards. Develop partnerships across the organization to identify and prioritize high‑impact ML opportunities. Oversee end‑to‑end machine learning workflow, including data collection, model development, deployment and modeling. Available for on‑call rotations based on the team’s escalation policy and support schedule for ML/AI solutions. Foster innovation by exploring new ML techniques, tools, and technologies. Oversee automated tools (AI) usage while adhering to company policy. Collaborate with global teams to stay consistent across Ad Platforms. Basic Qualifications Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, engineering, mathematics, statistics, or a related field. 10+ years of relevant industry experience, with at least 5 years in people‑management managing senior ICs and managers. Proven ability to translate business problems into scalable ML and GenAI solutions and strong understanding of machine learning fundamentals, deep learning, and statistical modeling. Proven experience designing, building, and deploying scalable machine learning models and systems in production. Experience deploying ML/GenAI systems at scale using cloud platforms and MLOps practices. Advanced programming proficiency (e.g., Python, Java, or similar); experience with ML/DL frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX, Hugging Face. Experience building, fine‑tuning, evaluating, and deploying LLM‑based systems (e.g., RAG, prompt engineering, model optimization). Demonstrated ability to lead global teams and collaborate across organizational boundaries. Preferred Qualifications Domain knowledge in the Ad Tech industry. Experience working with large‑scale data and distributed systems. Knowledge of cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) and MLOps pipelines. Track record of innovation and contributions to the ML/AI community (publications, talks, open source). Salary Range The hiring range for this position in Los Angeles, CA area is $207,400 - $278,100 per year and Seattle Area is $217,300 - $291,500. 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. Equal Opportunity & Disability Accommodation Disney Entertainment & Sports LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military or veteran status, medical condition, genetic information or disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world. The Walt Disney Company and its affiliated companies are equal employment opportunity employers and welcome all job seekers including individuals with disabilities and veterans with disabilities. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or apply for a position, email View email address on click.appcast.io with your request. This email address is not for general employment inquiries or correspondence. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability. #J-18808-Ljbffr