Manager, Software Engineering

“We Power the Magic!” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences (DX). Our team creates world-class immersive digital experiences for the Company’s premier vacation brands including Disney’s Parks & Resorts worldwide, Disney Cruise Line, Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, and Disney Vacation Club.  

We are responsible for the end-to-end digital and physical Guest experience for all technology & digital-led initiatives across the Attractions & Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Resorts & Transportation and Merchandise lines of business as well as other initiatives including MyDisneyExperience and Hey, Disney! 

This role sits within the Disney Signature Experiences (DSE) Technology for Emerging Businesses. The organization delivers and supports a diverse technology portfolio that includes guest-facing web experiences, enterprise business applications, Salesforce platforms, cloud-native services, data and integration solutions, and operational systems that power critical business processes. 

About The Role & Team: 

The Manager, Software Engineering leads multiple agile engineering teams responsible for delivering scalable digital products, enterprise platforms, integrations, and operational systems that support critical business functions and guest experiences across Disney Signature Experiences. 

This role is accountable for building and developing high-performing engineering teams while driving the successful delivery, operation, and continuous improvement of technology solutions. The Manager serves as a key technology leader and strategic partner, working closely with Product Managers, Architects, Business Analysts, Program Managers, vendors, and business stakeholders to translate business objectives into innovative, secure, and reliable technology solutions. 

The ideal candidate combines strong technical expertise and hands-on engineering fluency, credible in the details without being the primary implementer with proven people leadership experience and a passion for developing talent, fostering cross-functional partnerships, and delivering business results through modern software engineering practices, cloud-native architectures, DevOps automation, operational excellence, and AI-assisted/native software development. 

The role reports to the Sr. Manager, Software Engineering.  

What You’ll Do:   

• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop multiple software engineering teams, fostering an inclusive, accountable, collaborative, and high-performing culture focused on innovation, continuous learning, and delivery excellence. 

• Recruit, hire, onboard, retain, and grow engineering talent through effective performance management, career development, succession planning, and team capability building. 

• Drive execution across a portfolio of technology initiatives, including analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, enhancement, and support of enterprise applications, platforms, integrations, and digital products. 

• Provide technical leadership across teams by participating in architecture and design reviews, guiding technical quality, evaluating complex solutions, and coaching engineers to own implementation. 

• Partner with Product, Program, Business Analysis, Architecture, business stakeholders, vendors, and delivery partners to translate business objectives into scalable, secure, maintainable, and reliable technology solutions. 

• Champion modern engineering practices across cloud-native development, APIs, integrations, DevOps automation, security, observability, resilience, scalability, performance, quality engineering, and responsible AI-assisted development. 

• Lead modernization and continuous improvement initiatives that improve software delivery, platform reliability, developer productivity, operational excellence, and business value. 

• Own roadmap planning, prioritization, capacity forecasting, resource allocation, dependency management, budget inputs, and technology investment recommendations across multiple teams and initiatives. 

• Ensure production systems are reliable, available, secure, supportable, and continuously improved through monitoring, incident management, root cause analysis, and service improvement practices. 

• Communicate engineering strategy, delivery progress, risks, dependencies, tradeoffs, and business outcomes clearly to technical and non-technical audiences. 

Required Qualifications: 

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience delivering enterprise-scale applications, platforms, integrations, or digital products. 

• 5+ years of experience leading software engineering teams in Agile delivery environments, including demonstrated success leading multiple teams and complex technology initiatives. 

• Strong technical fluency across modern software engineering practices, architecture/design patterns, backend frameworks such as Java/Spring Boot, APIs, microservices, distributed systems, and modern web technologies. 

• Experience leading teams that build, operate, and support cloud-native solutions on AWS, Azure, GCP, or comparable cloud platforms. 

• Experience driving production support, operational excellence, incident management, reliability, security, scalability, observability, maintainability, and quality engineering practices. 

• Experience working with enterprise platforms, integrated SaaS ecosystems, Salesforce or comparable business platforms, and complex integration environments. 

• Experience managing vendors, consulting partners, offshore teams, third-party service providers, and delivery tradeoffs across cross-functional initiatives. 

• Strong communication, stakeholder management, collaboration, organizational leadership, and talent development skills, including the ability to attract, develop, and retain high-performing engineering talent. 

• Demonstrated experience applying AI-assisted engineering tools or practices to improve delivery outcomes, software quality, documentation, testing, or engineering productivity. 

• Advocate for a diverse and inclusive culture that encourages innovation and ensures every team member feels a sense of belonging. 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Experience supporting consumer-facing digital products or technology platforms in travel, hospitality, leisure, commerce, subscription-based, or guest-focused businesses. 

• Experience leading digital transformation, application modernization, platform engineering, site reliability engineering, cloud operations, or related engineering capability improvements. 

• Experience supporting complex ecosystems, enterprise SaaS platforms, APIs, and integration-heavy environments. 

• Experience implementing engineering performance metrics, operational health reporting, observability, monitoring, or production insights using tools such as Splunk, Datadog, AppDynamics, New Relic, or comparable platforms. 

• Experience leading globally distributed engineering teams and working across multiple delivery models, locations, or partner organizations. 

• Understanding of Responsible AI principles, enterprise AI governance frameworks, and modern Agile planning and collaboration tools such as Jira and Confluence. 

Required Education: 

• Bachelor's or foreign equivalent Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience