Lead Machine Learning Engineer, Ad Platforms

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.

Ad Platforms is responsible for Disney’s industry-leading ad technology and products – driving advertising performance, innovation, and value in Disney’s sports, news, and entertainment content, across all media platforms.

Our mission is to advance AI and machine learning capabilities across Ad Platform by delivering scalable, high impact AI/ML and data science solutions that enhance Ad decisioning, forecasting, experimentation and Ad experience. We are seeking a Lead Machine Learning Engineer to join this innovative team. This role offers a unique leadership opportunity for an experienced ML engineer who thrives at the intersection of technical excellence, strategic impact, and cross-functional collaboration.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Drive innovation and apply state of the art AI and machine learning across advertising domains, including inventory forecasting, ad experience, ad pacing, pricing, targeting, and efficient ad delivery.

• Invent and iterate on novel solutions to complex advertising challenges with rapid prototyping and deployment cycles.

• Design, build, and scale robust ML systems that power core ad platform capabilities
• Champion engineering excellence through best practices in code quality, system design, and operational reliability.
• Mentor and support junior engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and technical growth.

WHAT TO BRING

• Minimum 7 years of hands-on experience developing and deploying large-scale machine learning systems.
• Strong knowledge of AI/ML technologies, mathematics and statistics.
• Excellent communication, collaboration skills, and a strong teamwork ethic with both technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong foundations in algorithms, data structures, and numerical optimization with experience in programming languages such as Python (primary), Java and SQL
• Familiarity with tools and frameworks such as TensorFlow, Pytorch, Hugging libraries etc

• Proven proficiency in deep learning methodologies, including recurrent and sequence-based models.
• Hands-on experience with transformer architectures (e.g., BERT, GPT, ViT) for natural language and vision tasks.
• Strong understanding of multimodal embedding techniques for integrating text, image, audio, and structured data.
• Experience with LLM models such as GPT models, Claude, Gemini, Llama, etc.
• Strong grasp of LLM evaluation methodologies, experience with RAG architectures.

• A proven track record of thriving in a fast-paced, data-driven, and collaborative work environment is required. 

NICE-TO-HAVES

• Experience in digital video advertising or digital marketing domain. 

• Experience with forecasting models.

Required Education

Bachelor's (MS or PhD preferred) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA is $171,600 to $230,100 per year and in Seattle is $179,700 to $241,000. 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.