Executive Director, Design

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

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.

The team marries technology with creativity to build world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and scalability for our businesses. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with every part of The Walt Disney Company’s media portfolio to advance the technological foundation and consumer media touch points serving millions of people around the world. 

Here are a few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

• Building the future of Disney’s media: Our Technologists are designing and building the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.

• Reach, Scale & Impact: More than ever, Disney’s technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans' connections with the company’s brands and stories. Disney+. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and events they carry – matter to millions of people globally. 

• Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and distinctive technical problems.

Design is centrally responsible for the design supporting all consumer-facing and business products and tooling for the Disney Entertainment & ESPN portfolio, including sports, entertainment, enterprise, UX, creative services and design research.

About the Role

As Executive Director, Design - Discovery & Browse, you will own the end‑to‑end design mandate for Discovery & Browse across Disney+ and Hulu. This encompasses both platforms' browse surfaces, search experiences, personalization UX, and next-generation AI-powered discovery interactions.

Responsibilities

• Design Vision & Strategy: Define and champion a unified but platform-appropriate design vision for Discovery across Disney+ and Hulu  one that serves the distinct tonal, audience, and brand requirements of each service while maintaining architectural coherence.

• Search & Browse Architecture: Lead design of Search, Browse, and navigation systems at scale including content taxonomy, metadata-driven UX, and information architecture for catalogs of extraordinary breadth and diversity.

• AI-Powered Discovery: Drive the design strategy for next-generation discovery including AI discovery assistants, voice interfaces, conversational browsing, and ambient recommendation surfaces. Establish Disney Streaming as a leader in intelligent, low-friction content discovery.

• Personalization UX: Partner with Personalization and Data Science teams to translate algorithmic recommendations into intuitive, subscriber-trusting design experiences. Ensure personalization surfaces feel helpful, not intrusive.

• Radical Simplicity: Set and hold the bar for design simplicity and clarity ensuring that as the platforms grow in capability and catalog, the subscriber experience grows simpler, not more complex.

• Multi-Platform Excellence: Oversee Discovery design consistency and quality across TV, mobile, web, and emerging device surfaces maintaining coherence while adapting to each platform's unique interaction model.

• Team Building & Talent: Recruit, develop, and retain a best-in-class Product Design team with specialized depth in streaming Discovery, Search, AI prototyping, and browse UX. Build the team that defines the standard for Discovery design in entertainment.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Serve as the design executive partner for Product Management, Engineering, Machine Learning, and Content teams ensuring design is embedded in Discovery strategy from the earliest stages.

Basic Qualifications & Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree and/or equivalent work experience

• Minimum 12 years of related work experience

• Disney+ / Hulu / Entertainment Platform Background: Demonstrated experience leading Discovery and Browse design at Disney+, Hulu, or a closely comparable streaming or entertainment platform. Understands the specific UX and product constraints of catalog-driven, subscription entertainment services.

• Discovery & Search Architecture: Expert-level background in designing large-scale content discovery systems including search UX, browse taxonomy, genre and mood-based navigation, and recommendation-driven surface design.

• AI Prototyping & Conversational UI: Direct experience leading design for AI-powered features including voice discovery, natural language search, conversational recommendation interfaces, and AI-assisted browsing.

• Dual-Service Complexity: Ideally, experience navigating multi-brand or multi-audience design systems with the ability to maintain platform identity and audience appropriateness across a diverse content portfolio.

• Executive Design Leadership: Proven track record setting design direction, influencing at the VP level, building high-performing design teams, and driving design outcomes on complex, cross-functional products.

• Taste & Simplicity: An exceptional design sensibility with a demonstrated ability to bring clarity and elegance to complex discovery problems. A portfolio that shows restraint as a design principle, not an afterthought.

• Talent Magnet: A reputation for attracting senior design talent and building Discovery-specialized teams with a network in entertainment technology and streaming design.

The hiring range for this position in San Francisco is $227,200 to $304,700 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.