Senior Manager, Software Development Engineer in Test

The Walt Disney Company; Santa Monica, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 172,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

The Walt Disney Company’s Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology organization is seeking a Senior Manager to lead and scale its Quality Engineering teams, delivering robust test automation, reliability, and business impact at scale across commerce, data, and advertising systems.

You will set strategy, mentor managers, and partner with engineering, product and data science leaders to drive transformation and governance, while building shared automation frameworks and intelligent

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software quality engineering, test automation, or software development.
• 5+ years managing managers or leading multi‑team organizations.
• Proven track record of scaling and transforming quality engineering functions in complex, cloud‑native, high‑scale environments.
• Experience defining and driving organizational strategy at the executive level.
• Expertise in modern test automation frameworks, CI/CD, and emerging trends in software quality.
• Strong knowledge of software engineering practices and agile approaches.
• Experience conducting security and performance tests for identity and access management systems.
• Hands‑on testing experience (manual and automated) for identity and access management platforms.
• Proficiency with Python or modern OO languages; ad‑tech or large‑scale systems experience a plus.
• Excellent communication and mentoring skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead multiple quality engineering teams and people leaders, fostering technical excellence and continuous learning.
• Define the multi‑year vision and strategic roadmap for quality across advertising platforms.
• Champion organizational transformation with best‑in‑class practices, tools, and metrics.
• Set the technical direction for large‑scale test automation, cloud‑native solutions, and AI/ML‑driven testing.
• Sponsor shared automation frameworks and platforms across product and engineering teams.
• Ensure timely resolution of outages through postmortems and systemic improvements.
• Develop and execute the quality strategy across product groups, balancing innovation and risk.
• Oversee resource planning, hiring, and design for scaling quality talent.
• Maintain quality governance and traceability across product lines.
• Partner with senior leadership and cross‑functional teams to communicate risks and outcomes.

Skills

Quality engineering

Test automation

CI/CD

Python

Leadership

Cloud-native

Security testing

Performance testing

Mentoring

Stakeholder management

Education

B.S. in Computer Science

Tools

Automation frameworks

CI/CD pipelines

Cloud platforms

IAM testing tools

Job description

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Senior Manager, Software Development Engineer in Test

Job ID 10160438 Location Santa Monica, California, United States / New York, New York, United States Business Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology Date posted Oct. 06, 2026

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

Technology is at the heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, data scientists, and more – all working to build and advance the technological backbone for Disney’s media business globally.

The team marries technology with creativity to build world‑class products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and scalability for our businesses.We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with every part of The Walt Disney Company’s media portfolio to advance the technological foundation and consumer media touch points serving millions of people around the world.

Here are a few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

• Building the future of Disney’s media: Our Technologists are designing and building the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
• Reach, Scale & Impact: More than ever, Disney’s technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans' connections with the company’s brands and stories. Disney+. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and events they carry – matter to millions of people globally.
• Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and solve complex and distinctive technical problems. Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms. This includes product engineering, media engineering, quality engineering, and the engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

Job Summary:

The DEEP & Technology team is seeking a highly experienced Senior Manager to lead and scale our Quality Engineering organization supporting various commerce, data and advertising systems. In this role, you will provide strategic, operational, and technical leadership across multiple quality engineering teams, ensuring robust test automation, reliability, and business impact at scale. You will develop and execute a quality strategy that drives measurable improvement in system reliability, speed of delivery, and product excellence, partnering closely with executives, engineering leadership, and cross‑functional business units.

Ideal candidates are visionary people leaders with a proven track record of growing high‑performing teams, implementing transformational quality programs, and delivering significant value in complex and rapidly evolving environments.

Responsibilities:

Organizational Leadership & Transformation

• Lead, inspire, and develop multiple quality engineering teams and people leaders (managers/technical leads), fostering a culture of technical excellence, inclusion, and continuous learning.
• Define the multi-year vision and strategic roadmap for quality engineering across the advertising platform, aligned with company business and technology goals.
• Champion organizational transformation, driving the adoption of best‑in‑class practices, tools, and quality metrics at scale.

Technical Thought Leadership

• Set the technical direction for large‑scale test automation architecture, cloud‑native solutions, and intelligent testing initiatives (AI/ML‑driven testing, autonomous pipelines, etc.).
• Sponsor and guide the evolution of shared automation frameworks, tools, and platforms across product and engineering teams.
• Ensure timely resolution and prevention of high‑severity outages through organizational postmortems, root cause analysis, and systemic improvements.

Strategic Planning & Execution

• Develop, communicate, and execute the quality engineering strategy across multiple product groups, balancing innovation, risk, and operational needs.
• Oversee resource planning, hiring, and organizational design to ensure scaling and allocation of quality engineering talent to meet evolving business needs.
• Take ultimate responsibility for quality governance, compliance, and traceability across all product lines within your scope.

Cross‑Functional & Executive Partnership

• Build and maintain strong working relationships with senior leadership in engineering, product management, data science, product operations, and business teams.
• Articulate quality risks, trade‑offs, and long‑term strategies to executive stakeholders; provide regular reporting on quality metrics and organizational outcomes.
• Lead cross‑functional initiatives to ensure test automation and quality engineering are embedded early and effectively throughout the development lifecycle.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in software quality engineering, test automation, or software development, with 5+ years managing managers or leading multi‑team organizations
• Proven track record of scaling and transforming quality engineering functions in complex, cloud‑native, high‑scale environments
• Demonstrated experience defining and driving organizational strategy, advocating for quality at the senior/executive level, and influencing business outcomes
• Expertise in modern test automation frameworks, CI/CD, and emerging trends in software quality
• Knowledge of software engineering practices and agile approaches
• Strong desire for establishing and improving product quality
• Experience conducting security and performance tests for identity and access management systems and platforms
• Hands on experience testing (manual and automated) identity and access management systems and platforms
• Advanced proficiency with Python or modern OO languages; experience with ad‑tech or large‑scale systems is a plus
• Willingness to take challenges head on while being part of a team
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and mentoring skills
• B.S. in Computer Science (or equivalent degree or work experience)

Technology is at the heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, data scientists, and more – all working to build and advance the technological backbone for Disney’s media business globally.

The team marries technology with creativity to build world‑class products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and scalability for our businesses.We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with every part of The Walt Disney Company’s media portfolio to advance the technological foundation and consumer media touch points serving millions of people around the world.

• Building the future of Disney’s media: Our Technologists are designing and building the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
• Reach, Scale & Impact: More than ever, Disney’s technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans' connections with the company’s brands and stories. Disney+. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and events they carry – matter to millions of people globally.
• Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and solve complex and distinctive technical problems. Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms. This includes product engineering, media engineering, quality engineering, and the engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

Job Summary:

The DEEP & Technology team is seeking a highly experienced Senior Manager to lead and scale our Quality Engineering organization supporting various commerce, data and advertising systems. In this role, you will provide strategic, operational, and technical leadership across multiple quality engineering teams, ensuring robust test automation, reliability, and business impact at scale. You will develop and execute a quality strategy that drives measurable improvement in system reliability, speed of delivery, and product excellence, partnering closely with executives, engineering leadership, and cross‑functional business units.

Ideal candidates are visionary people leaders with a proven track record of growing high‑performing teams, implementing transformational quality programs, and delivering significant value in complex and rapidly evolving environments.

Responsibilities:

Organizational Leadership & Transformation

• Lead, inspire, and develop multiple quality engineering teams and people leaders (managers/technical leads), fostering a culture of technical excellence, inclusion, and continuous learning.
• Define the multi‑year vision and strategic roadmap for quality engineering across the advertising platform, aligned with company business and technology goals.
• Champion organizational transformation, driving the adoption of best‑in‑class practices, tools, and quality metrics at scale.

Technical Thought Leadership

• Set the technical direction for large‑scale test automation architecture, cloud‑native solutions, and intelligent testing initiatives (AI/ML‑driven testing, autonomous pipelines, etc.).
• Sponsor and guide the evolution of shared automation frameworks, tools, and platforms across product and engineering teams.
• Ensure timely resolution and prevention of high‑severity outages through organizational postmortems, root cause analysis, and systemic improvements.

Strategic Planning & Execution

• Develop, communicate, and execute the quality engineering strategy across multiple product groups, balancing innovation, risk, and operational needs.
• Oversee resource planning, hiring, and organizational design to ensure scaling and allocation of quality engineering talent to meet evolving business needs.
• Take ultimate responsibility for quality governance, compliance, and traceability across all product lines within your scope.

Cross‑Functional & Executive Partnership

• Build and maintain strong working relationships with senior leadership in engineering, product management, data science, product operations, and business teams.
• Articulate quality risks, trade‑offs, and long‑term strategies to executive stakeholders; provide regular reporting on quality metrics and organizational outcomes.
• Lead cross‑functional initiatives to ensure test automation and quality engineering are embedded early and effectively throughout the development lifecycle.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in software quality engineering, test automation, or software development, with 5+ years managing managers or leading multi‑team organizations
• Proven track record of scaling and transforming quality engineering functions in complex, cloud‑native, high‑scale environments
• Demonstrated experience defining and driving organizational strategy, advocating for quality at the senior/executive level, and influencing business outcomes
• Expertise in modern test automation frameworks, CI/CD, and emerging trends in software quality
• Knowledge of software engineering practices and agile approaches
• Strong desire for establishing and improving product quality
• Experience conducting security and performance tests for identity and access management systems and platforms
• Hands on experience testing (manual and automated) identity and access management systems and platforms
• Advanced proficiency with Python or modern OO languages; experience with ad‑tech or large‑scale systems is a plus
• Willingness to take challenges head on while being part of a team
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and mentoring skills
• B.S. in Computer Science (or equivalent degree or work experience)

The hiring range for this position in California is $171,600 - $230,100 per year and in New York is $179,700 - $241,000 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.

About Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology:

At Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology, we’re blending imagination and innovation to reimagine the ways people experience and engage with the world’s most beloved stories and products. Our work is wide-ranging and deeply sophisticated. We create amazing experiences, transform the future of media, and build products and platforms that enable the connection between people everywhere and the stories and sports they love.

Disney’s ability to marry world‑class technology with one‑of‑a‑kind creativity makes us unique. It is at the heart of our past, present, and future. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers.

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 that includes three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. 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 Entertainment & Sports LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology.

Disney Entertainment & Sports LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military or veteran status, medical condition, genetic information or disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

To learn more about Disney's policies on the use of AI for candidates, click here.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION FOR EMPLOYMENT APPLICATIONS

The Walt Disney Company and its Affiliated Companies are Equal Employment Opportunity employers and welcome all job seekers including individuals with disabilities and veterans with disabilities. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or apply for a position, visit the Disney candidate disability accommodations FAQs. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.

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