Principal Technical Project Manager

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. 

The Business Operations team helps guide and articulate technology strategy and research, and is responsible for driving the day-to-day operation of the Product & Technology organization, including: project and portfolio management and tracking; organization-level capital, space, and resource management and allocation; process management; technical incident management; and our administrative and workplace experience support team. 

Job Summary:

The person in this role, Principal Technical Program Manager, will own and lead technical program planning and delivery for strategic initiatives for Disney’s Advertising roadmap. Additionally, through leveraging strong technical aptitude, the successful candidate will establish understanding of the Advertising Platform architecture to ensure organizational roadmap planning is completed with accurate dependency mapping, proactive risk mitigation and alignment with cross-functional teams, thereby laying the groundwork for smooth and consistent handoff into delivery phases. By creating repeatable planning and execution frameworks, this role will enhance organizational clarity, improve cross-functional coordination, and connect long-term strategy to near-term delivery in a scalable way.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

· Own and drive planning for multi-quarter, cross-functional strategic roadmaps aligned with business goals and platform health.

· Lead execution of large, high-impact, multi-team initiatives with clear milestones, success metrics, and launch criteria.

· Establish operating and reporting mechanisms to ensure predictable delivery, quality, and readiness across organizations.

· Proactively surface implicit and downstream dependencies, including data contracts, SLAs, and shared infrastructure.

· Partner closely with TPMs across Ad Platforms to deliver upfront quarterly execution plans across the organization

· Translate complex technical concepts and risks into clear business and execution implications for product, engineering, and leadership.

· Act as a trusted technical and program leader for complex, ambiguous initiatives.

· Influence across engineering, product, data science, and business teams without direct authority.

· Raise the bar for technical rigor, planning discipline, and dependency management across the TPM organization.

· Mentor senior TPMs and contribute to program management best practices at the platform level

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Minimum and Preferred. Inclusive of Licenses/Certs (include functional experience as well as behavioral attributes and/or leadership capabilities)

Basic Qualifications

· Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, mathematics, or a related field.

· 10+  years of experience in engineering, program or product management and operations, strategic planning, or cross-functional program delivery in a technology or media environment.

· Proven experience building and scaling operational frameworks and planning processes.

· Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities across complex, matrixed teams.

· Proficiency with tools such as Airtable, JIRA, Confluence, Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides), Excel

· Demonstrated ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across diverse stakeholder groups.

· Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to distill complexity and synthesize plans for executive audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

· Experience working in a product-led organization, particularly with scaled agile or OKR-driven planning environments.

· Familiarity with technical project management and delivery life cycles.

· Experience in strategic initiative planning and financial tracking (e.g., CAR/CER funding processes).

· High attention to detail with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

· Comfortable navigating ambiguity and driving clarity in fast-paced, evolving environments.

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica and Glendale is $155,700 - $208,700 per year, and in Seattle and New York is $163,100 - $218,700 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.