VP, Release Planning

Job Summary:

Disney’s Direct to Consumer team oversees the Hulu and Disney+ streaming businesses within Disney Entertainment, helping to bring The Walt Disney Company’s best-in-class storytelling to fans and families everywhere.

The Disney+ Global Content Programming and Subscriber Engagement team is responsible for leading content planning, scheduling, on-service merchandising, slate management, and programming insights that contribute to a cohesive strategic content approach for the service.

Job Summary:

Disney+ is seeking a VP, Release Planning to lead the strategic planning of content releases across our DTC Global Originals and other key titles. This is an executive role designed for a seasoned leader who thrives in large, complex organizations — someone who can build trusted relationships across multiple business units, balance competing stakeholder priorities with diplomacy, and establish a best-in-class release planning function. In this role, you will own the end-to-end release planning process — from release format strategy and content calendar architecture to partnering with teams on data-driven performance analysis — working closely with teams across The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) to ensure each title lands at the right moment for the right audience.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee release planning strategy for Direct-to-Consumer Global Originals and key titles, establishing a comprehensive content calendar designed to maximize subscriber acquisition, engagement, and retention.
• Partner closely with — and build trusted relationships across — stakeholders throughout TWDC, including our content studios, marketing, regional programming teams, finance, content operations, and other scheduling teams across TWDC. Present premiere date recommendations to leaders across many of these teams on a regular basis to drive consensus.
• Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing team, fostering a culture of analytical rigor, creative problem-solving, and proactive cross-functional collaboration.
• Draw on audience and content performance insights and market intelligence — produced in close partnership with analytics teams — to continuously inform and evolve release strategy, identify content calendar gaps, and optimize title placement for maximum business impact. Translate those insights into clear release strategy recommendations for senior leadership.
• Partner with content studios and internal teams from greenlight to premiere, with a deep understanding of creative, production, post-production, marketing, localization, and financial dependencies and timelines.
• Partner with tooling and business optimization teams to develop and champion scalable release planning processes, frameworks, and visualizations that can flex to support the team’s dynamic business needs.
• Track the competitive streaming landscape and evolving industry trends.

Education and Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree

• 12+ years of progressive, relevant experience in content scheduling, release planning, or a closely related discipline within a major streaming service, studio, broadcast network, or cable network, with direct experience managing premium content. At least 5 years at a DTC streaming service or digital media company strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated success operating in large, highly matrixed corporate environments — with a proven ability to build trust, influence senior stakeholders, and drive alignment across multiple business units without direct organizational authority.

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to craft and deliver concise, executive-ready presentations and recommendations with clarity and authority.

• Proven executive-level leadership capabilities, including a track record of building, developing, and retaining high-performing teams while managing up effectively to senior leadership.

• Strong analytical literacy and data fluency, with the ability to critically interpret complex outputs from analytics partners, including optimization models, binge-velocity metrics, audience completion curves, and churn signals, and translate those findings into clear, actionable release strategy decisions and executive-level recommendations. Comfort with data visualization tools and content management platforms is expected, though this role partners with dedicated analytics teams rather than running analysis directly.

• High business acumen, strategic thinking ability, and the demonstrated capacity to build consensus across competing organizational agendas in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment.

• Encyclopedic knowledge of and genuine passion for content

Preferred Education and Experience:

• MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.

• Prior experience working within The Walt Disney Company or a comparable large, diversified media and entertainment conglomerate with multiple content studios and business units.

• Experience working with global content operations and localization workflows, with an understanding of the logistical and strategic dependencies that govern international release timing across multiple languages and territories.

• Familiarity with and interest in AI and machine learning applications relevant to content scheduling and discovery, evaluating and advocating for new tools and methodologies that can drive operational efficiencies for fast-moving teams.

The hiring range for this position in California is $214,600.00-$287,700.00 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.