Principal Technical Project Manager
“We Power the Magic!” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences - Technology & Digital. 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.
The DX Technology & Digital team is 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 the MyDisneyExperience and Hey, Disney!
The Principal Technical Project Manager is responsible for all aspects of project management for large programs and projects. This role will report to the Senior Manager, Technology Project Management within the 3PO team (Portfolio, Program, and Project Organization).
Act as a key leader for a high-priority, multi-site strategic program
Confidently lead and drive cross-functional projects, and individual project tracks through full delivery life cycle ensuring project is delivered timely and on-budget.
Work with engineering teams, including Software Engineers, Product Managers, Architects, and leadership to establish processes across all program areas that will ensure success on high priority business initiatives and improve efficiency.
Lead and direct more junior technical project managers in the execution of their work during the project lifecycle
Work with business leaders and key stakeholders to support engineering efforts for projects within a program
Project Leadership, Planning and Execution
Lead and manage large-scale, complex programs and/or projects, ensuring seamless collaboration across various teams and workstreams.
Anticipate risks and develop mitigation plans
Maintain accurate project documentation, including: RAID log, scope, project plans, budget, etc.
Articulate a technical solution into business strategy and understand the big picture as it relates to business value.
Financial Management
Reconcile project actuals and determine forecast course corrections
Achieve a detailed understanding of how project is billed, including changes to forecast
Maintain up-to-date budget documentation
Proactively communicate forecast budget or changes to leadership
Project Resource Management
Align resource capacity maps to project plans accounting for cross-project dependencies
Drive integration with resource managers, delivery managers and leadership
Monitor resource capacity, balancing work and budget (over/under)
Risk Management & Problem Solving
Manage scope changes and variances, assess impact to timeline and budget, and communicate
Proactively collaborate and identify solutions to as unexpected issues arise to maintain progress
Provide transparent communication of risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, scope change, impacts and solutions
Stakeholder Communication & Management
Drive stakeholder coordination and engagement to ensure understanding of project requirements, scope, goals, priorities and timelines.
Engage stakeholders to ensure decision and change management processes are followed
Create and own communication plan & cadence of project meetings
Manage stakeholder expectations, build strong relationships and trust
Transparent Project Reporting
Prepare and facilitate project status presentations, dashboards, risk assessments and data-driven storytelling for leadership and executives
Enable data-driven storytelling with Data visualization
Prepare and distribute weekly status updates
Maintain meeting minutes, including purpose, agenda and deliverables and progress towards goals/ milestones
Identify health / progress metrics
Minimum of 10 years of technical project/program management experience working with technical teams developing enterprise class solutions
Technical aptitude:
Understanding of Cloud, APIs, services, database technologies, technologist roles and responsibilities, capabilities & platform dependencies, software development lifecycle, engineering and/or product development
Influence and negotiation, communication, professional maturity & organizational savvy, relationship building, dependency mapping
Hands-on experience with practices such as Agile, Lean, Kanban, Waterfall as well as extensive experience with pragmatic blending of styles to facilitate collaboration and delivery
Deep understanding of Agile technical practices, DevOps and testing concepts (CI/CD, TDD)
Significant experience in coaching and mentoring teams on project management practices including Agile, Lean, Kanban, Waterfall
Excellent ability to understand architectural and technical aspects of projects
Excellent organizational, communication (written and verbal) and time management skills with attention to detail
Experience managing large budgets
Office productivity software, including Microsoft suite, Keynote, Smartsheet,
Project management software, including MyPPM (Clarity), MyJira
Reporting tools, including Tableau, PowerBI
Technical project management experience in Commerce or a related field
Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
Experience in supporting large-scale, global software development programs
Agile Certifications ie CSM; ACP; CPO; SAFe; LeSS
Bachelor’s degree and/or equivalent work experience
From classic animated features and exhilarating theme park attractions to cutting edge sports coverage, and the hottest shows on television, The Walt Disney Company has been making magic since 1923, creating unforgettable stories that connect with audiences around the world. And we’re just getting started!
The key to our success…. The Cast, Crew, Imagineers and Employees who honor Disney’s rich legacy by stretching the bounds of imagination to create the never-before-seen, bringing unparalleled entertainment experiences to people of all ages. Begin a career that delivers unparalleled creative content and experiences to audiences around the world and just imagine the stories you could be part of…
What is #LifeAtDisney like? It’s a series of magical moments with cast members and employees developing and telling our stories in the most innovative ways. Whether it’s a day spent as a Disney VoluntEAR, or celebrating the release of a new interactive experience, retail product or movie, our days are filled with the knowledge that we are creating entertainment experiences the whole family can enjoy. Follow @DisneyCareers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for a peek behind-the-curtain, and discover how you could connect to a world of stories with Disney!