Senior Data Scientist - NLP/LLM

Job ID 10117749 Location Glendale, California, United States / Santa Monica, California, United States / San Francisco, California, United States / New York, New York, United States / Seattle, Washington, United States Business Disney Direct to Consumer Date posted Apr. 10, 2025

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Job Summary:

About The Role

Data scientists at Disney Streaming Services are the insights and modeling partners for the growth, content, marketing, product, and engineering teams at Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. They use data to empower decision-makers with information, predictions, and insights that ultimately influence the experiences of millions of users worldwide. Scientists on the team build models, perform statistical analysis, and create visualizations to provide scalable, persistent capability that is iteratively improved through direct interaction with cross-functional business partners.

As a Senior Data Scientist on the Segmentation and Content Understanding team, you will lead technical efforts in developing and deploying advanced NLP and Large Language Model (LLM) solutions to enhance user experience across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. This role requires expertise in deep learning model architectures, fine-tuning, customization of open-source models, and hands-on experience deploying production-grade AI solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Develop and deploy advanced NLP and LLM solutions.
Customize and fine-tune foundational models such as BERT, GPT, and CLIP.
Create multimodal AI systems integrating text, image, and video data.
Optimize model performance (accuracy, latency, scalability) leveraging GPU infrastructure and distributed computing.
Deploy models and manage their lifecycle in production environments.
Implement robust CI/CD workflows and job orchestration for ML systems.
Follow software development best practices, including testing, code reviews, and continuous integration.
Champion and implement MLOps practices for seamless deployment and monitoring.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field.
5+ years of hands-on experience developing and deploying machine learning models in production environments.
Strong expertise in Deep Learning, NLP, large language models, embeddings, and related technologies.
Familiarity with transformers, attention mechanisms, multimodal models, and tokenization.
Proficient with Python, at least one of the deep learning frameworks (such as PyTorch or TensorFlow), and deep learning libraries (such as Hugging Face Transformers).
Hands-on experience with fine-tuning techniques and model optimization.
Solid understanding of hardware optimization, GPU usage, and performance trade-offs.
Proficiency in CI/CD processes, job orchestration tools, Docker, containerization, and MLOps workflows.
Excellent communication skills, capable of clearly articulating technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
Comfort working in fast-paced environments, adapting proactively to changing priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field.
Experience using vector databases and retrieval systems.
Familiarity with GPU profiling and memory optimization for large models.
Familiarity with NLP techniques such as RLHF, parameter-efficient tuning, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Additional Information

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY and Seattle, WA is $145,400 to $195,000 per year. Santa Monica, CA is $138,900 to $186,200 per year, San Francisco, CA is $152,100 to $203,900 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.

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About Disney Direct to Consumer:

Disney’s Direct to Consumer team oversees the Hulu and Disney+ streaming businesses within Disney Entertainment helping to bring The Walt Disney Company’s best-in-class storytelling to fans and families everywhere.

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 Services LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Direct to Consumer.

Disney Streaming Services 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.

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