Manager, Application Technology

Disney has built one of the world’s most iconic brands by delivering unforgettable, transformative stories. At the heart of this creative legacy is The Walt Disney Studios. Here, storytelling meets cutting-edge technology.

As a key leader in Studio Technology, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping how our stories reach audiences around the globe by architecting the digital backbone that powers our content operations. Join us and lead a team that’s driving real impact on a global scale.

Job Description

We’re looking for a people-first Engineering Manager to lead the team behind the core media applications and shared services that power the Studio’s digital supply chain. In this strategic leadership role, your focus will be on growing engineering talent and fostering a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and continuous learning—enabling your team to take on complex, high-impact projects involving distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, and large-scale media processing.

As part of the Studio Technology team, you’ll be responsible for delivering innovative software solutions that support our production, content operations, and marketing teams.

You’ll coach and mentor engineers through continuous feedback, career development planning, and meaningful growth opportunities. You’ll also guide the team in designing and delivering highly scalable, secure, and reliable B2B solutions in AWS, directly supporting media fulfillment and content workflows across the Studio.

Your leadership will shape both the culture and technical direction of our platform—driving innovation and long-term success across our media technology initiatives.

Responsibilities:

People Leadership:

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing engineering team.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous learning.
• Recruit and retain top talent, provide performance feedback, and support career growth.

Technical Execution and Delivery:

• Ensure engineering excellence through strong design patterns, robust testing, and high code quality.
• Lead technical decision-making and ensure alignment with architectural standards.
• Manage agile development processes and ensure predictable delivery and velocity.

Building for the Studio Supply Chain:

• Drive the development of shared services and media applications that serve as the foundation for the Studio’s content supply chain.
• Collaborate with cross-functional leaders on strategy, planning, and execution of high-impact projects.
• Prioritize delivery of maintainable, reusable services aligned with broader Studio goals.

AWS-Centric Architect:

• Architect and guide the implementation of secure, multi-tenant, scalable services on AWS.
• Leverage deep experience in cloud-native services such as IAM, ECS/EKS, S3, Lambda, API Gateway, and CloudFormation/Terraform.
• Ensure the platform meets strict requirements for security, performance, and reliability.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Align engineering execution with cross-functional priorities by partnering with Product, Security, Infrastructure, and other platform teams.
• Champion shared service adoption, reusability, and platform-wide architecture alignment.
• Serve as a key liaison between technical teams and business stakeholders, ensuring priorities are understood and delivered effectively.

Strategy and Innovation:

• Stay informed on emerging technologies and industry best practices.
• Identify and lead initiatives that improve engineering productivity and system scalability.

Basic Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in a Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field or equivalent years of experience
• 8 years of industry experience with a strong focus on application and shared services development
• 1 year experience leading and managing software development teams.
• Hands-on experience architecting secure, scalable, multi-tenant solutions on AWS.
• Strong grasp of software engineering principles, CI/CD practices, and cloud security standards.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Experience:

• Master’s degree in computer science, software engineering or a related field or equivalent years of experience
• Experience with digital media supply chain, content fulfillment, or production workflows.
• Familiarity with Agile and DevOps methodologies.

The hiring range for this position in Burbank, CA is $167,600 to $224,900 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.