Senior Principal Machine Learning Engineer
| Company | The Walt Disney Company |
|---|---|
| Location | Seattle, WA, USA, Santa Monica, CA, USA, San Francisco, CA, USA, Los Angeles, CA, USA, New York, NY, USA |
| Salary | $223700 – $328600 |
| Type | Full-Time |
| Degrees | Master’s, PhD |
| Experience Level | Expert or higher |
Requirements
- Track recordings of research & publications in recommendation system domain with deep neural net algorithms.
- Strong proficiency in at least one of the following deep learning frameworks, tensorflow, pytorch.
- Experiences building and deploying full stack ML pipelines: data extraction, data mining, model training, feature development, testing, and deployment.
- Track record from design to full production of effective recommendation systems.
- Experience with cloud services in a production environment (particularly AWS).
- Understanding of statistical concepts (e.g., hypothesis testing, regression analysis).
- Ability to articulate the usage and behavior of models and algorithms to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- 12+ years of relevant experience.
Responsibilities
- Define and drive the long-term technical vision for personalization and recommendation systems across Disney+, Hulu, ABC, and ESPN—ensuring alignment with overarching product and business strategies.
- Lead the development of foundational machine learning architectures and algorithms, enabling scalable, real-time, and highly personalized user experiences for hundreds of millions of users.
- Serve as a cross-functional thought leader, partnering with senior executives in Product, Engineering, Data, and Design to influence company-wide personalization strategy and investment.
- Identify and drive high-impact initiatives that advance the state-of-the-art in machine learning, guiding efforts from concept through deployment with measurable business outcomes.
- Mentor and elevate technical leaders across teams, fostering a culture of innovation, rigor, and excellence in machine learning engineering.
- Set standards for experimentation, model evaluation, and algorithm fairness; establish frameworks and tools to accelerate development and promote reproducibility.
- Represent Disney Streaming’s personalization efforts in strategic forums, internal councils, and external technical communities (e.g., conferences, publications, industry panels).
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s or PhD in statistics, math, computer science, or related quantitative field.
- Production experience with developing content recommendation algorithms at scale and familiar with metadata management, data lineage, and principles of data governance.
- Deep understanding in personalization challenges in homepage experience and proven records of developing effective solutions.