Lead Machine Learning Engineer

Our team develops and maintains recommendation and personalization algorithms for Disney Streaming's suite of streaming video apps, notably Disney+ and Hulu. As a member of this team you will collaborate across Engineering, Product, and Data teams to apply machine learning methods to meet strategic product personalization goals, explore innovative, cutting edge techniques that can be applied to recommendations, and constantly seek ways to optimize operational processes.

This is an Individual Contributor role in content recommendations. You will be expected to lead recommendation and personalization algorithm research, development, and optimization for product areas, and to coordinate requirements and manage stakeholder expectations with Product, Engineering, and Editorial teams. You will be expected to help meet KPIs for product areas and to set and meet deadlines for external and internally facing tools, such as offline evaluation tools for pre-production algorithms. 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.

• Algorithm Development and Maintenance: Utilize cutting edge machine learning methods to develop algorithms for personalization, recommendation, and other predictive systems; 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 such as Airflow and Jenkins; 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 and work with other data teams to improve how we do data collection, experimentation and analysis

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of analytical and/or data engineering experience
• 7+ years of experience developing machine learning models and performing data analysis with Python or R
• 5+ years writing production-level, scalable code (e.g. Python, Scala)
• 5+ years of experience developing algorithms for deployment to production systems
• In-depth understanding of modern machine learning (e.g. deep learning methods), models, and their mathematical underpinnings
• Experience deploying and maintaining pipelines (AWS, Docker, Airflow) and in engineering big-data solutions using technologies like Databricks, S3, and Spark
• Ability to gauge the complexity of machine learning problems and a willingness to execute simple approaches for quick, effective solutions as appropriate
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Additional Preferred Qualifications:

• MS or PhD in statistics, math, computer science, or related quantitative field
• Production experience with developing content recommendation algorithms at scale
• Experience building and deploying full stack ML pipelines: data extraction, data mining, model training, feature development, testing, and deployment
• Familiar with metadata management, data lineage, and principles of data governance
• Experience loading and querying cloud-hosted databases such as Snowflake
• Building streaming data pipelines using Kafka, Spark, or Flink

The hiring range for this position is $129,150 to $207,900 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. 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.

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 with the following business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, Disney Parks, and Experiences and Products. 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 Media & Entertainment Distribution.

Disney Streaming Technology LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. Disney fosters a business culture where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a rapidly changing world.