Senior Manager, Software Development Engineer in Test

The Walt Disney Company • Bristol, CT

8d • 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. The DEEP & Technology team is seeking a highly experienced Senior Manager (M3) to lead and scale the Quality Engineering organization supporting various commerce, data, and advertising systems. This role involves providing strategic, operational, and technical leadership across multiple quality engineering teams, ensuring robust test automation, reliability, and business impact at scale. The ideal candidate will develop and execute a quality strategy to improve system reliability, speed of delivery, and product excellence, collaborating with executives, engineering leadership, and cross-functional business units. This position requires visionary people leadership, a track record of growing high-performing teams, implementing transformational quality programs, and delivering value in complex, evolving environments.

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
• 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
• Bachelor's degree, preferably in Computer Science or related field (or equivalent 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