Manager – Applied AI

Jobtailor

California (MO)

On-site

USD 180,000 - 240,000

Full time

8 days ago

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Job summary

Disney is seeking an experienced AI leader to build and lead a squad of AI-native engineers within the Applied AI Acceleration practice. You will own end-to-end AI product delivery, translating business needs into technical solutions and shipping multiple engagements with varying cadences.

The role requires deep experience with LLMs, agents, embeddings, and classic ML, along with a strong ability to manage stakeholders and navigate enterprise data landscapes.

Qualifications

Minimum 8+ years of relevant experience.
Minimum 2+ years’ experience in a leadership-adjacent role: Engineering Manager, Technical Lead, Consulting Engagement Lead, Solutions Engineering lead, or equivalent.
Experience delivering AI-powered products end-to-end, including LLMs, agents, embeddings, and classical ML.
Working fluency with the modern AI application stack in production: prompt design, RAG, tool-calling agents, and eval harnesses.
Data literacy: SQL, APIs, and basic transformations.
Experience leading people, including direct reports, tech leads, and/or engagement teams.
Experience building AI products without a dedicated engineering team backing you (preferred).
Prior experience with enterprise-scale data and legacy systems (preferred).
Experience with golden datasets, trace analysis, and LLM-as-judge (preferred).
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience.

Responsibilities

Build a team of AI-native builders and run a squad of 2–4 team members within Disney’s Applied AI Acceleration practice.
Take ambiguous business problems from partners and ship AI-powered products.
Deliver 2–4 concurrent AI engagements with varying cadences, from days to weeks.
Stand up squads of 2–4 builders, including Applied AI Engineers, a Squad Anchor or Principal Applied AI Engineer, and occasional Data Engineer or TPM support.
Review pull requests, pair on difficult problems, and work through blocked implementation areas using Cursor.
Identify the underlying problem, rapidly prove feasibility, and decide what is worth shipping at the start of each engagement.
Build stakeholder relationships across all organizational levels.
Translate between business outcomes and technical tradeoffs.
Extract reusable components, playbooks, or templates from each engagement for future deployments.
Lead by doing in a player-coach role, contributing directly in the codebase alongside the team.

Skills

AI Product Delivery

Leadership Experience

Modern AI Stack

Data Literacy

Team Building

Stakeholder Management

Problem Solving

Communication

Team Collaboration

Player-Coach Leadership

Engagement Teams

Enterprise Data

Legacy Systems

Golden Datasets

Trace Analysis

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/IS/Software/Engineering

Tools

Cursor

Job description

Build a team of AI-native builders and run a squad of 2–4 team members within Disney’s Applied AI Acceleration practice
Take ambiguous business problems from partners and ship AI-powered products
Deliver 2–4 concurrent AI engagements with varying cadences, from days to weeks
Stand up squads of 2–4 builders, including Applied AI Engineers, a Squad Anchor or Principal Applied AI Engineer, and occasional Data Engineer or TPM support
Review pull requests, pair on difficult problems, and work through blocked implementation areas using Cursor
Identify the underlying problem, rapidly prove feasibility, and decide what is worth shipping at the start of each engagement
Build stakeholder relationships across all organizational levels
Translate between business outcomes and technical tradeoffs
Extract reusable components, playbooks, or templates from each engagement for future deployments
Lead by doing in a player-coach role, contributing directly in the codebase alongside the team

Requirements

Minimum 8+ years of relevant experience
Minimum 2+ years’ experience in a leadership-adjacent role: Engineering Manager, Technical Lead, Consulting Engagement Lead, Solutions Engineering lead, or equivalent
Experience delivering AI-powered products end-to-end, including LLMs, agents, embeddings, and classical ML
Working fluency with the modern AI application stack in production: prompt design, RAG, tool-calling agents, and eval harnesses
Data literacy: SQL, APIs, and basic transformations
Experience leading people, including direct reports, tech leads, and/or engagement teams
Experience building AI products without a dedicated engineering team backing you (preferred)
Prior experience with enterprise-scale data and legacy systems (preferred)
Experience with golden datasets, trace analysis, and LLM-as-judge (preferred)
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience

Core Competencies

Demonstrates expertise in delivering AI-powered products end-to-end, leveraging a modern AI application stack and leading cross-functional teams. Capable of translating business needs into technical solutions while fostering stakeholder relationships and driving team performance.

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