AI Architect, Distinguished Software Engineer

Overview

AI Architect, Distinguished Software Engineer at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology. Reimagining how to create magical viewing experiences while transforming Disney’s media business for the future. Involved in evolving streaming and digital products, powering worldwide advertising and distribution, and delivering Disney’s entertainment and sports content to partners and hundreds of millions of people globally.

• Building the future of Disney’s media business: DE&E Technologists design and build the infrastructure powering Disney’s media, advertising, and distribution for years to come.
• Reach & Scale: Products and platforms delight millions of consumers daily, across Disney+, Hulu, ABC News, ESPN, ESPN+, and more.
• Innovation: Develop and execute groundbreaking products and techniques shaping industry norms and audience experiences.

You will define and evolve the end-to-end architecture of Disney’s Ads Technology Platform—spanning ad serving, programmatic exchange and unified selection, identity & privacy, forecasting & pacing, measurement, and AI-driven optimization. This strategic role shapes the long-term technical direction of ad-serving, targeting, bidding, and measurement systems, driving innovations that impact billions of ad impressions and revenue. As a technical leader at the highest level of our engineering organization, you will partner with senior engineers, product leaders, and business stakeholders to define and realize a scalable, privacy-safe, and intelligent ads platform.

You’ll drive architectural excellence across distributed systems, machine learning infrastructure, real-time decision engines, and data platforms.

You will collaborate with stakeholders to understand software engineering and data needs and establish architecture standards. You will act as subject matter expert and work with a team of software and data engineers to deliver solutions for our business and technical partners. You will provide mentorship and professional growth to build our next generation of engineering leaders.

• Architect end-to-end AdTech platforms for real-time ad decisioning, pricing, and forecasting.
• Build scalable data pipelines for audience segmentation, targeting, and measurement.
• Lead the design of ML models and APIs for creative optimization and outcome-based targeting.
• Partner with product, data science, and sales teams to maximize yield and advertiser outcomes.
• Set best practices for data governance, model monitoring, and responsible AI.
• Mentor engineers and influence technical strategy across teams.
• Drive innovation by evaluating emerging technologies and recommending adoption where appropriate, both in software development and data management.
• Oversee the evaluation and selection of tools, frameworks, and platforms to support software development and data management.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards related to software and data architecture, data governance and security.
• Act as a technical evangelist, promoting a culture of excellence and thought leadership within the organization.
• Participate in executive-level discussions and decision-making processes related to technology strategy and investment.
• Database Design:
  Design scalable database structures with performance and best-practice adherence.
• Data Integration:
  Develop strategies for seamless data integration across systems and platforms.
• Data Security:
  Establish and enforce data security measures, including access controls and privacy compliance.
• Performance Optimization:
  Monitor and optimize database performance for speed and reliability.
• Metadata Management:
  Oversee metadata management, documentation, and data lineage.
• Training and
  
  Education:
  
  Conduct training sessions on software and data governance principles.
• Documentation:
  Maintain comprehensive documentation for software and data architecture.

• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Science, or related field.
• 15+ years of engineering experience, with 5+ in AI/ML and AdTech data systems.
• Strong coding…