The Walt Disney Company · 2 days ago
Manager, Software Engineering - AI Core Engineering
Glendale, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$172K/yr - $230K/yr
8+ years expThe Walt Disney Company is a global leader in media and entertainment, and they are seeking a Manager for AI Core Engineering. In this role, you will lead a team of engineers to build core AI capabilities and developer-facing applications, ensuring timely delivery and integration with enterprise systems.
Amusement Park and ArcadeAnimationConsumer GoodsDigital MediaE-CommerceMedia and EntertainmentMulti-level MarketingPerforming ArtsResorts
Responsibilities
Lead, mentor, and grow a team of full stack engineers (backend-heavy) and UI-focused developers
Drive career development, performance management, and team culture
Foster an inclusive, high-performing environment
Own execution of the AI Core roadmap, ensuring timely delivery of reusable agents, services, and developer-facing web apps
Remove blockers, balance workloads, and track progress against objectives and key results (OKRs)
Partner with product and TPM counterparts on planning and prioritization
Partner with infrastructure, data, product, and security teams to integrate AI core capabilities into enterprise and customer-facing systems
Represent AI Core Engineering in leadership forums, sharing updates, risks, and adoption progress
Guide architecture and design, review team proposals, manage capacity, and mitigate risks and blockers to keep projects on track
Ensure best practices for guardrails, governance, observability, and developer enablement
Balance priorities across backend services, AI orchestration, and UI/web application delivery
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field (Master's preferred), or equivalent experience
8+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years in a leadership or management role
Expert in at least one foundational programming language, preferably Python or Java, with a track record of building production-grade systems
Proven experience managing teams delivering AI/ML-powered systems or developer tooling
Hands-on expertise with LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Claude) and orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LangGraph)
Experience designing and delivering multi-agent architectures and applying modern AI system design patterns
Experience overseeing delivery of UI/web applications alongside backend services
Working knowledge of test automation and modern CI/CD practices for AI and backend systems
Strong ability to mentor engineers, manage performance, and build team culture
Excellent communication and collaboration skills; able to influence across technical and non-technical stakeholders
Set standards for code quality, test coverage, and production readiness across AI core components and web applications
Preferred
Prior experience managing teams that span backend and UI engineering
Knowledge of AI governance, safety, and observability frameworks
Experience integrating enterprise AI services such as AWS Bedrock or Azure AI Foundry
Background in developer enablement or platform engineering where shared frameworks accelerated adoption
Skilled at writing technical strategies, design reviews, and presenting to senior leadership
Benefits
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.
Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company started as a cartoon studio and evolves into sports coverage and television shows.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
The Walt Disney Company has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (83)
2024 (63)
2023 (96)
2022 (130)
2021 (30)
2020 (40)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$11BKey Investors
Citibank
2020-04-13Post Ipo Debt· $5B
2020-03-20Post Ipo Debt· $6B
1978-01-06IPO
Leadership Team
Christine M. McCarthy
Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Jamie Power
SVP, Addressable Sales
Recent News
2026-01-08
2026-01-07
Company data provided by crunchbase