Senior Manager, Network Engineering & Operations

Department Description:

At Disney, we’re storytellers. We make the impossible, possible. The Walt Disney Company is a world-class entertainment and technological leader. Walt’s passion was to continuously envision new ways to move audiences around the world—a passion that remains our touchstone in an enterprise that stretches from theme parks, resorts and a cruise line to sports, news, movies and a variety of other businesses. Uniting each endeavor is a commitment to creating and delivering unforgettable experiences — and we’re constantly looking for new ways to enhance these exciting experiences.

The Enterprise Technology mission is to deliver technology solutions that align to business strategies while enabling enterprise efficiency and promoting cross-company collaborative innovation. Our group drives competitive advantage by enhancing our consumer experiences, enabling business growth, and advancing operational excellence.

Team Description:

The Team provides architectures and designs while facilitating deployments and operational support.  The outcomes of the team are considered network product offerings, specially built for the unique workflows of streaming, film-making, TV production, broadcast, post-production and other media businesses.

What You’ll Do:

Reporting to the Director of Architecture, Engineering, & Operations within Global Network Engineering & Operations (GNEO), the Senior Manager, Network Engineering & Operations focuses on deploying excellent network products for media business stakeholders at The Walt Disney Company. 

The Senior Manager role combines deep technical expertise with product-oriented thinking, ensuring the services meet the needs of internal customers, scale efficiently, and deliver measurable business value.

• Own the studio and media networking portfolio, defining multi‑year strategy, roadmaps, and investment priorities aligned to production, post‑production, broadcast, and streaming business needs

• Translate the requirements of filmmakers, production teams, post‑production, and media operations into scalable, repeatable network platform capabilities

• Influence enterprise and studio technology direction through sustained partnership with Production Technology, Post‑Production, Media Engineering, and Enterprise Infrastructure leadership

• Balance creative agility with enterprise reliability, ensuring network platforms enable creative velocity while meeting availability, security, and compliance expectations

• Directly manage Managers, Senior Engineers, and peered resources supporting global studio and media networking platforms

• Build leadership bench strength through coaching, succession planning, and career development for managers and senior technical leaders

• Act as technical and operational product owner for studio and media networking platforms supporting on‑lot production, stages, post‑production facilities, remote production, and cloud‑enabled workflows

• Provide engineering and operational leadership across network backbone, campus, WAN, and cloud networking environments supporting media creation and delivery

• Work in tight partnership with Studio Network Architecture to establish and operationalize network standards, reference architectures, and deployment patterns, while co‑owning the strategic, multi‑year roadmap for studio and media networking platforms

• Ensure network solutions meet the unique performance, latency, security, and reliability requirements of production, editorial, VFX, and media workflows

• Ensure appropriate application of corporate, studio, and business‑unit security standards while accounting for the practical realities of creative production environments

• Own annual operating budgets, capital planning, and 5‑year financial forecasts for studio and media networking initiatives

• Lead vendor strategy, sourcing, contract negotiations, maintenance renewals, and lifecycle management for critical production and media networking technologies

• Oversee third‑party partners and service providers to ensure delivery against performance, cost, and roadmap commitments aligned to both studio and enterprise objectives

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• Minimum 10+ years of network engineering, with strong expertise in automation, orchestration, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Experience with AI/ML technologies and data engineering concepts. Preferred: Proven hands-on building AI agents

• Proven track record in deploying media or production networks both on-premise and in the public cloud

• Strong project management and resource planning experience

• Proven experience as a senior individual contributor with enterprise-wide technical influence.

• Strong track record of influencing technical and product decisions across teams.

• Ability to construct, manage and oversee a complex budget of annual and 5-yr planning elements

• Strong background in security and network security technologies (e.g. intrusion detection, cryptographs, auth)

• Strong experience in network theory, protocol and appliances (MPLS, VxLAN, eVPN, TCP/IP, DNS)

Education:

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Network Engineering, Electrical Engineering or or related field of study, and/or equivalent work experience.

• Preferred: Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline

#DISNEYTECH

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The hiring range for this position in Burbank, CA is $188,400 - $252,600 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.