Lead Technical Program Mgr

Technology is at the heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment

& 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:

• This is a staff position within the DE&E Product & Technology: Business Operations – Technical Program Management organization.
• This role will focus on cross-functional strategic initiatives outside the core product roadmap, such as Value Stream Management (VSM) and Architecture Forums, ensuring these efforts have dedicated ownership rather than being treated as side-of-desk priorities.
• They may also own the planning and execution of programs of highest complexity and priority across its Alliance, DEEPT, and TWDC.
• This position requires expert experience in program management, serving as a subject matter expert for guidance in the discipline.
• Ideal candidates must be highly proactive, detail-oriented, and able to autonomously work on multiple assignments.
• They must be capable of influencing Senior Leadership on strategic decisions, technical trade-offs, and long-term delivery strategy.
• They must be capable of attaining expertise in domain details and clearly communicate schedules, risks, status, and processes to a variety of business and technical audiences.
• They must be able to partner closely with other technical program managers and technical leads to coordinate schedules and deliverables.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Lead adoption of Value Stream Management (VSM) and drive program lifecycle and operating model improvements as a dedicated owner of cross-functional strategic initiatives

• Drive activities for our largest, most strategic, technical programs of the highest complexity, risk, and priority

• Expertise building and scaling services or platforms within a Data Platforms organization

• Accountable for driving execution and delivery of extraordinarily highprofile technical, product or software development projects from start to finish in a fast-paced and complex environment. Programs assigned to this level are the highest complexity and strategic priority.

• Performs all other responsibilities of a Program Manager at an expert level, plus:

• Develop strong partnerships with engineering, product management and analytics leaders to drive focus on strategic and tactical program objectives

• Understands all project domain components, including architecture, tools and deployment practices that development team is employing; can explain the purpose of component decisions at a high level

• Forecasts project risks proactively; analyzes and drives resolution of key project blockers

• Develop and execute change management and communication plans and engage with stakeholders to report progress and raise issues

• Document and communicate key decisions, accomplishments, problems, changes to plan, and go forward plans for assigned deliverable(s) to internal and external executive stakeholders

• Ability to lead technical discussions at the organizational level to drive decisions and next steps

• Strong written and verbal communication skills to articulate technical and delivery concepts for a Sr Executive level audience

• Assists in triage of other projects or programs and makes recommendations to senior-level leadership

• Serves as subject matter expert and "go to" person for guidance in program management discipline

• May manage smaller teams of professional employees related to area of focus or expertise

• Defines, optimizes, and manages Agile project management processes at the team-of-teams level

• Solid grasp of team-of-teams level agile software development lifecycle methodologies, principles, and practices

• Manage capacity across team-of-teams to balance delivery priorities (business, technical, maintenance, etc.,)

• Fill in gaps across roles and functions as needed, performing as an adaptive problem solver

• Create a collaborative work environment that cultivates shared understanding, transparency, mastery, autonomy, innovation and continuous learning

• Exhibit a high tolerance for context switching and interruptions while remaining productive and able to provide effective guidance

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant experience
• Proven ability to facilitate effective communication across disparate teams
• Evidence of strong planning, delivery, and problem-solving skills
• Superb written and verbal communications, presentation skills, and meeting facilitation skills (especially when working with senior leadership)

Preferred Qualifications

• Formal project management certifications

Experience with:

• Experience working in a media technology environment
• Technology domain knowledge, or demonstrated aptitude for learning a technology-based engineering domain

Required Education

• BA/BS or equivalent experience required

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA is $163,100 - $218,700 per year and in Glendale, CA is $155,700 - $208,700 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.