Applied AI Manager: Build & Ship AI-Powered Solutions

Emploive; Seattle, Northern (WA, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Disney is seeking a Manager, Applied AI to lead a team driving AI-powered products. The role requires hands-on leadership, collaboration across business partners, and end-to-end delivery of AI initiatives. You’ll ship value while building a capable squad and setting patterns for reusable playbooks.

The position is on-site with strong teamwork expectations, embedding AI capabilities into real Disney workflows and user-centered outcomes.

Qualifications

• Minimum 8+ years of relevant experience.
• Minimum 2+ years in a leadership-adjacent role.
• Experience with delivery of AI-powered products end-to-end.

Responsibilities

• End-to-end delivery of 2-4 AI engagements with different cadences.
• Stand up a squad of 2-4 Applied AI Engineers and a Squad Anchor.
• Review PRs and pair on hard problems, including Cursor integration.
• Uncover real problems, prove feasibility, and decide what to ship for impact.
• Translate business outcomes into technical tradeoffs while preserving nuance.
• Lead by doing in a player-coach mode, shipping alongside the team.

Skills

Leadership

AI product delivery

LLMs & agents

Production AI stack

SQL & APIs

Stakeholder mgmt

Data literacy

Team building

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Cursor

Claude

Eval harnesses

Job description

Disney is seeking a Manager, Applied AI to lead a team driving AI-powered products. The role requires hands-on leadership, collaboration across business partners, and end-to-end delivery of AI initiatives. You’ll ship value while building a capable squad and setting patterns for reusable playbooks.

The position is on-site with strong teamwork expectations, embedding AI capabilities into real Disney workflows and user-centered outcomes.