Application Engineering Manager

The Disney Decision Science and Integration (DDSI) team leverages advanced technologies, Gen AI, data analytics, and scientific approaches such as optimization, and statistical modeling to build innovative tools that shape business decisions across The Walt Disney Company. We support Disney Entertainment (ABC, The Walt Disney Studios, Disney+, Hulu), ESPN, Disney Experiences (Theme Parks, Cruise Line, Consumer Products, DVC), and Corporate Finance with strategic applications that enable data-driven decision-making.

A Lead Application Engineer on the DDSI team will lead the technical aspects of software development projects by using their experience to design and deliver applications that are user-friendly, performant, integrated, measurable and extensible. Lead Application Engineers invent creative software solutions, lead problem-solving sessions, prioritize team tasks according to business needs, and enjoy being a technical leader in a collaborative environment.

In this role, as Lead Application Engineer, you will guide other Application Engineers and Sr. Application Engineers in the implementation of web-based analytic applications for internal DDSI customers such as Disney Entertainment and Disney Parks, Experiences, & Products. This role requires team leadership experience, a strong computing background, an AI-first mindset, excellent analytical and quantitative skills, and a passion for delivering quality solutions that satisfy business needs.

What You’ll Do  :

• Lead the technical application engineering efforts for designing, building, and delivering custom software supporting strategic business initiatives

• Champion the adoption of GenAI tools to improve efficiency and productivity

• Collaborate cross functionally with:

  • Product teams to define application requirements, priorities, estimates, and delivery plans

  • Data Science team to incorporate science models into user-friendly applications

  • Technology teams to deliver scalable, efficient, and automated cloud infrastructure services

  • Data Engineering teams to integrate high volume data into analytic solutions

Required Qualifications & Skills  

• Minimum 7 years of professional software development experience

• Minimum 5 years of hands‑on Python development

• Experience with Django and modern front‑end frameworks such as ReactJS

• AI‑First Development & Productivity

  • Hands‑on experience applying generative AI tools to improve development workflows, testing practices, and documentation

  • Ability to identify and implement AI‑driven opportunities that enhance engineering efficiency and solution quality

• Full‑Stack Architecture & Cloud Engineering

  • Proven experience architecting and building elegant, scalable full‑stack web ecosystems

  • Expertise across front‑end, back‑end, APIs, data persistence, caching, monitoring, scalability, and security

  • Strong understanding of cloud‑native design patterns and best practices

• Complex Problem Solving with Large Datasets

  • Experience designing applications that solve complex data problems with intuitive, user‑friendly solutions

  • Proven ability to process and manage large, complex datasets

  • Experience with databases and data warehouses such as PostgreSQL and Snowflake

• Technical Leadership

  • Demonstrated ability to lead technical projects end‑to‑end, from design through delivery

  • Experience estimating effort, managing priorities, meeting deadlines, and adapting to changing requirements

  • Ability to anticipate risks and resolve technical issues collaboratively within the team

• Collaboration & Communication

  • Ability to communicate, collaborate and compromise with cross-functional business teams

  • Strong ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to business and technical stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications:

• Analytics-driven application development

  • Experience developing software systems that leverage analytics to drive insights and decision‑making

• AI systems & patterns

  • Experience designing and building AI‑based systems, including agentic workflows and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) patterns

• Cloud & full-stack engineering

  • Expertise in ReactJS, Python, and Django

  • Proficient in AWS web application architecture

• Product design & delivery

  • Experience with UX/UI design

  • Experience developing user scenarios, business requirements, mockups, and technical specifications

• Data platform & orchestration

  • Experience with analytic and orchestration tools like Databricks, Airflow, or similar

  • Experience working with unstructured data

• Developer tooling & standards

  • Experience evaluating, choosing, and rolling out software tools and component libraries

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study and/or equivalent work experience