Executive Director, Design

The Walt Disney Company • San Francisco, CA

22h • Onsite

About The Position

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization focused on building and advancing the technological backbone for Disney’s media business. This team combines technology with creativity to create world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive innovation and scalability. The Design team is responsible for the design of all consumer-facing and business products and tooling for the Disney Entertainment & ESPN portfolio, including sports, entertainment, enterprise, UX, and design research. As the Executive Director, Design - Discovery & Browse, you will be responsible for the end-to-end design of Discovery & Browse features across Disney+ and Hulu. This includes browse surfaces, search experiences, personalization UX, and AI-powered discovery interactions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree and/or equivalent work experience
• Minimum 12 years of related work experience
• Demonstrated experience leading Discovery and Browse design at Disney+, Hulu, or a closely comparable streaming or entertainment platform.
• Expert-level background in designing large-scale content discovery systems including search UX, browse taxonomy, genre and mood-based navigation, and recommendation-driven surface design.
• Direct experience leading design for AI-powered features including voice discovery, natural language search, conversational recommendation interfaces, and AI-assisted browsing.
• Proven track record setting design direction, influencing at the VP level, building high-performing design teams, and driving design outcomes on complex, cross-functional products.
• An exceptional design sensibility with a demonstrated ability to bring clarity and elegance to complex discovery problems.
• A portfolio that shows restraint as a design principle, not an afterthought.

Nice To Haves

• Understand the specific UX and product constraints of catalog-driven, subscription entertainment services.
• Ideally, experience navigating multi-brand or multi-audience design systems with the ability to maintain platform identity and audience appropriateness across a diverse content portfolio.
• A reputation for attracting senior design talent and building Discovery-specialized teams with a network in entertainment technology and streaming design.

Responsibilities

• Define and champion a unified design vision for Discovery across Disney+ and Hulu, serving the distinct tonal, audience, and brand requirements of each service while maintaining architectural coherence.
• Lead the design of Search, Browse, and navigation systems at scale, including content taxonomy, metadata-driven UX, and information architecture for extensive catalogs.
• Drive the design strategy for next-generation discovery features such as AI discovery assistants, voice interfaces, conversational browsing, and ambient recommendation surfaces.
• Partner with Personalization and Data Science teams to translate algorithmic recommendations into intuitive, subscriber-trusting design experiences.
• Set and maintain a high standard for design simplicity and clarity, ensuring the subscriber experience becomes simpler as platforms grow.
• Oversee Discovery design consistency and quality across TV, mobile, web, and emerging device surfaces, adapting to each platform's unique interaction model.
• Recruit, develop, and retain a best-in-class Product Design team with specialized expertise in streaming Discovery, Search, AI prototyping, and browse UX.
• Serve as the design executive partner for Product Management, Engineering, Machine Learning, and Content teams, ensuring design is integrated into Discovery strategy from the outset.

Benefits

• A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package
• Full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees