Senior Manager, Software Development Engineer in Test

The Walt Disney Company • Santa Monica, CA

11d • Hybrid

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. The team combines technology with creativity to create world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive innovation and scalability. Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms, encompassing product engineering, media engineering, quality engineering, and the engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

Requirements

• 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
• 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)

Nice To Haves

• experience with ad-tech or large-scale systems is a plus

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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