Lead Technical Program Mgr

The Walt Disney Company • Glendale, NY

6d • Onsite

About The Position

Disney Entertainment & ESPN Product & Technology is seeking a Lead Technical Program Manager to join their Business Operations - Global Program Management organization. This role focuses on the planning and execution of complex programs within the Commerce domain, which drives membership growth for streaming services like Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. The position requires a proactive, detail-oriented individual capable of managing multiple assignments autonomously, understanding technical details, and communicating effectively with diverse audiences. The Lead Technical Program Manager will also assist in triaging other programs and providing recommendations to senior leadership.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience managing large-scale, strategic, software development programs in a well-established global technology organization.
• Proven ability to facilitate effective communication across disparate teams.
• Expertise in Agile or Waterfall program management methods that may include Scrum, Kanban, and/or Scaled Agile.
• Evidence of strong planning, delivery, and problem-solving skills.
• Superb written and verbal communications, presentation skills, and meeting facilitation skills (especially when working with senior leadership).
• Experience working in a media technology environment.
• Ad tech domain knowledge, or demonstrated aptitude for learning a technology-based engineering domain.
• BA/BS or equivalent experience required.

Nice To Haves

• Formal project management certifications preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead execution and delivery of highly complex and strategically prioritized programs with cross-functional and organizational impact.
• Develop plans and timelines, accounting for all dependencies.
• Ensure transparency of progress and issues/risks.
• Proactively drive risk mitigation and contingency planning, along with issue resolution.
• Communicate status and program summaries via presentations/dashboards, email, and direct communication with key stakeholders and executive leadership.
• Ensure that all involved parties understand and accept their roles and responsibilities and are held accountable to their deliverables.
• Perform capacity planning for teams.
• Collaborate with other program management colleagues to coordinate activities across multiple technology teams.
• Deep understanding of most program domain technical components, including architecture, tools and deployment practices that development team is employing, including cross-system interactions and dependencies.
• Track and report key program metrics.
• Partner with Product to facilitate advancement of intake pipeline, sometimes helping to triage programs to make recommendations to senior leadership.
• Effortlessly sift through “noise” and facilitate discussions and activities with a laser focus towards results.
• Navigate the TWDC to effectively drive progress, even when the scope of responsibilities may be unclear.
• Exemplify leadership characteristics through collaboration, work ethic, and creative thinking.
• Strive to inspire others and deliver the best possible outputs.
• Define, optimize, and manage ceremonies and processes at the team-of-teams level.
• Act as a trusted advisor to executives, providing input on program feasibility, risks, prioritization, and the delivery trade-offs associated with key decisions.
• Influence and align cross-functional and external partners without direct authority, resolving conflicts and driving program outcomes with minimal escalation.
• Leverage AI-driven tools to design and continuously improve scalable delivery processes, governance models, and reporting frameworks tailored to organizational needs, eliminating inefficiencies and supporting excellence at scale.
• Proactively drive, track, and report on budgets.
• Coordinate with external vendors, where applicable.
• Mentor other TPMs, elevating the overall maturity of program management practices across the organization.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior