Lead Machine Learning Engineer

Job ID 10104823 Location Seattle, Washington, United States / Santa Monica, California, United States / San Francisco, California, United States Business Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology Date posted Dec. 17, 2024

Apply Now

Job Summary:

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we’re reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world’s most beloved stories while also transforming Disney’s media business for the future. Whether that’s evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to maximize flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney’s unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

A few reasons why we think you’d love working for Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

Building the future of Disney’s media business: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power Disney’s media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day – from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.
Innovation: We develop and execute groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Our team is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining Hulu's recommendation and personalization algorithms. As part of this team, you will collaborate with Engineering, Product, and Data teams to apply machine learning techniques to achieve strategic personalization goals. This is an Individual Contributor role in content recommendations. You will be expected to lead recommendation and personalization algorithm research, development, implementation, and optimization for product areas, and to coordinate requirements and manage stakeholder expectations with Product, Engineering, and Editorial teams. As an IC, you will also be responsible for helping to set the roadmap for algorithmic work — not only for how to approach product requests for new recommendation features, but for helping to drive larger company objectives in the areas of personalization and content recommendation.

Responsibilities:

Algorithm Development and Maintenance: Utilize cutting edge machine learning methods to develop algorithms for personalization, recommendation, and other predictive systems and bring it to large-scale real-time recommendation pipeline; maintain algorithms deployed to production and be the point person in explaining methodologies to technical and non-technical teams
Feature Engineering and Optimization: Develop and maintain ETL pipelines using orchestration tools; deploy scalable streaming and batch data pipelines to support petabyte scale datasets
Development Best Practices: Maintain existing and establish new algorithm development, testing, and deployment standards
Collaborate with product and business stakeholders: Identify and define new personalization opportunities with product team and work with data teams to improve how we do data collection, experimentation and analysis
Strong written and verbal communication skills

Basic Qualification:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience
In-depth understanding of deep learning technology in recommendation system or NLP fields
Proficiency in at least one of the following deep learning framework, tensorflow, pytorch
Experience deploying and maintaining pipelines (AWS, Docker, Airflow) and in engineering big-data solutions using technologies like Databricks, S3, and Spark
Experience building and deploying full stack ML pipelines: data extraction, data mining, model training, feature development, testing, and deployment
Ability to articulate the usage and behavior of models and algorithms to both technical and non-technical audiences
7+ years of experience in developing highly scalable machine learning products
7+ years writing production-level, scalable Python codes

Preferred qualification:

MS or PhD in statistics, math, computer science, or related quantitative field
Familiarity with Java and/or Scala programming languages
Production experience with developing content recommendation algorithms at scale and familiar with metadata management, data lineage, and principles of data governance
Building streaming data pipelines using Kafka, Spark, or Flink

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA is $172,300-$231,100 per year, San Francisco is $180,200.00 to $241,600.00 per year and Santa Monica, CA is $164,500.00 to $220,600.00 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

Apply Now

About Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology:

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology (DE&E Technology) provides the technological backbone and product development for Disney’s two media business units, while helping to keep the company at the vanguard of innovation – enabling the Company to continuously leverage technology to enhance storytelling and creativity, while delivering scalability, flexibility, and efficiency for its businesses.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise that includes three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney’s stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

This position is with Disney Streaming Technology LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology.

Disney Streaming Technology LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military or veteran status, medical condition, genetic information or disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION FOR EMPLOYMENT APPLICATIONS

The Walt Disney Company and its Affiliated Companies are Equal Employment Opportunity employers and welcome all job seekers including individuals with disabilities and veterans with disabilities. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or apply for a position, email Candidate.Accommodations@Disney.com with your request. This email address is not for general employment inquiries or correspondence. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.

Having technical issues? View the FAQs for help.

Hiring Process

Where Does Your Story Begin?

Explore Disney Careers and the Life at Disney blog to learn about all the amazing opportunities waiting to be discovered at The Walt Disney Company.
Be Part of the Story

There are many different brands and businesses to explore. Once you've found the opportunity that is right for you, take the next step by completing your application.
The Next Chapter

Once you've applied, you will receive an email allowing you to access your candidate dashboard. Create your login and make sure to check your dashboard often to see your application progress.

Explore this Location Seattle, WA

With a thriving food-and-drink scene, eclectic neighborhoods and a stunning coastal setting, Seattle is a dynamic urban enclave nestled in the Pacific Northwest. The city is bounded by Lake Washington in the east and Puget Sound to the west, an ideal location for water recreation and sight-seeing cruises.