Forward Deployed Engineer

Disney Cruise Line - The Walt Disney Company; Burbank (CA); On-site; Confidential; Full time

Job summary

Disney Cruise Line - The Walt Disney Company is seeking an early-career software builder to create AI-powered features within Disney’s Applied AI Acceleration practice. You will clarify problems, prototype solutions, and ship end-to-end products with stakeholders across Marketing, Finance, Parks Operations, HR, Studios, and more.

The role emphasizes hands-on delivery, using tools like LLM APIs and agents, with a bias toward learning, adaptability, and strong communication with senior

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years of experience shipping software products for real users, including at least 1 year shipping AI-powered features in production.
• Experience with modern AI development tools and methods, such as prompt design, agents, RAG, LLM APIs, and evals.
• Daily or frequent use of AI coding tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, or similar tools.
• Ability to read and reason about code, debug with teammates, and work with data using SQL, APIs, or basic transformations.
• Strong product and business judgment, with experience connecting features to user needs and business outcomes.
• Strong learning agility and comfort working with new tools and changing technology.
• Ability to communicate clearly with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship AI-powered features from problem definition through production.
• Work directly with stakeholders to understand business needs and gather feedback.
• Own the user experience, including workflows, interfaces, automation, and human-in-the-loop decisions.
• Use tools such as LLM APIs, prompt design, RAG, agents, and evaluation methods to solve problems effectively.
• Build within Disney’s enterprise systems with appropriate security, monitoring, and operational practices.
• Test changes before launch using regression checks, golden sets, and other evaluation methods.
• Contribute reusable code, tools, and patterns when they can help future engagements.
• Partner with teammates through code reviews, debugging, and shared problem solving.
• Explain technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to business stakeholders.

Skills

AI tooling

Prompt design

LLM APIs

RAG

SQL

APIs

Debugging

Stakeholder comms

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Cursor

Claude Code

LLM tooling

Job description

The Enterprise Technology mission is to deliver technology solutions that align to business strategies while enabling enterprise efficiency and promoting cross-company collaborative innovation. Our group drives competitive advantage by enhancing our consumer experiences, enabling business growth, and advancing operational excellence.

You will build AI-powered products within Disney’s Applied AI Acceleration practice, partnering with teams across Marketing, Finance, Parks Operations, HR, Studios, and other business areas. These teams bring real business challenges and ideas for how AI could help. Your role is to clarify the problem, build the right solution, and get working products in front of users quickly.

This is an early-career builder role on a small team led by a hands-on Manager. You will work directly with stakeholders, define what is worth building, and ship features end-to-end. You should be comfortable using AI tools such as Claude, Cursor, agents, and emerging platforms to build practical solutions.

We are looking for curious, adaptable builders who learn quickly and enjoy turning ideas into products people use. This role is a strong fit for product builders, designers, engineers, operators, PMs, and founders who have experience shipping AI products.

We’d love to see something you've built! Please include a portfolio link

This team works in office Monday to Thursday.

Responsibilities:

• Build and ship AI-powered features from problem definition through production.

• Work directly with stakeholders to understand business needs and gather feedback.

• Own the user experience, including workflows, interfaces, automation, and human-in-the-loop decisions.

• Use tools such as LLM APIs, prompt design, RAG, agents, and evaluation methods to solve problems effectively.

• Build within Disney’s enterprise systems with appropriate security, monitoring, and operational practices.

• Test changes before launch using regression checks, golden sets, and other evaluation methods.

• Contribute reusable code, tools, and patterns when they can help future engagements.

• Partner with teammates through code reviews, debugging, and shared problem solving.

• Explain technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to business stakeholders.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum 3 years of experience shipping software products for real users, including at least 1 year shipping AI-powered features in production.

• Experience with modern AI development tools and methods, such as prompt design, agents, RAG, LLM APIs, and evals.

• Daily or frequent use of AI coding tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, or similar tools.

• Ability to read and reason about code, debug with teammates, and work with data using SQL, APIs, or basic transformations.

• Strong product and business judgment, with experience connecting features to user needs and business outcomes.

• Strong learning agility and comfort working with new tools and changing technology.

• Ability to communicate clearly with senior stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience as a product manager, designer, operator, engineer, founder, or builder who has used AI tools to create working products.

• Experience building AI products without a dedicated engineering team.

• Forward-deployed engineering or similar experience.

• Strong design-engineering instincts and ability to ship polished user experiences.

• Experience working across multiple business areas such as media, parks, retail, operations, HR, or finance.

• Experience with evaluation methods such as golden sets, trace analysis, LLM-as-judge, or production eval pipelines.

• Strong writing skills for documentation, retrospectives, and technical decisions.

• Experience with enterprise-scale data, legacy systems, or complex stakeholder environments.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree and/or equivalent work experience

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Glendale or Burbank, CA is $117,500 to $157,500 per year. 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.