Director, Tech Operations

“We Power the Magic!” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences (DX) Tech & Digital. Our team creates world-class immersive experiences to consumers through our Parks & Resorts worldwide, Cruise Lines, and Disney Vacation Club. We are responsible for the end-to-end digital and physical Guest experience for all technology initiatives across the Attractions & Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Resorts & Transportation and Merchandise. Our global team is comprised of nearly 3,000 professionals across technology, product, data, and operations functions, focusing on the development and implementation of digital technology strategies for our businesses around the world.

This Director, Tech Operations is responsible for vision, leadership, planning, support and implementation of high performance and high availability systems spanning all aspects of Disney Experiences’ Commercial portfolio of 1000+ applications. Business areas this position will support include Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Consumer Products, License & Publishing, and International. The team is responsible for the infrastructure provisioning, incident management, continuous integration/delivery pipelines, and continuous technical modernization.

This role will work closely with Technology and Business executives to align to the strategic goals and objectives that achieve a rock-solid production environment. Will lead strategy, implementation and continuous improvement of systems and processes to achieve and maintain very high availability, scalability and performance across the suite of applications. This leader will possess deep technical understanding of system architecture, automation, monitoring and incident management. Will have strong focus on software engineering practices and very close collaboration with development teams. It will also work closely with Security and Compliance to ensure that team processes, systems, and ongoing development are meeting all requirements and guidelines and helping drive development and project teams to address findings and vulnerabilities. Last, this role will lead proactive initiatives that provide greater insight to production that help. This role will report to the VP, Technology.

The Company uses several different technology stacks, so it will be critical to have a strong understanding of core infrastructure fundamentals and expertise in two or more cloud-based technologies.

What you will do:

This role is responsible for vision, leadership, planning, support and implementation of high performance and high availability systems spanning all aspects of Disney Experiences’ Commercial portfolio of 1000+ applications. Business areas this position will support include Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Consumer Products, License & Publishing, and International. The team is responsible for the infrastructure provisioning, incident management, continuous integration/delivery pipelines, and continuous technical modernization.

This role will work closely with Technology and Business executives to align to the strategic goals and objectives that achieve a rock-solid production environment. Will lead strategy, implementation and continuous improvement of systems and processes to achieve and maintain very high availability, scalability and performance across the suite of applications. This leader will possess deep technical understanding of system architecture, automation, monitoring and incident management. Will have strong focus on software engineering practices and very close collaboration with development teams. It will also work closely with Security and Compliance to ensure that team processes, systems, and ongoing development are meeting all requirements and guidelines. And also helping drive development and project teams to address findings and vulnerabilities. Last, this role will lead proactive initiatives that provide greater insight to production that help.

The Company uses several different technology stacks, so it will be critical to have a strong understanding of core infrastructure fundamentals and expertise in two or more cloud-based technologies.

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• 10+ years of experience leading high performing technology teams building, deploying, and maintaining scalable and resilient enterprise solutions with multiple cloud providers
• 7+ years proven experience/success leading high performing teams that maintain development pipelines and provide production support
• 5+ years in a technology executive role
• 5+ years as software development manager for large scale customer facing applications for mobile (iOS and Android) and web
• Experience with highly virtualized environments; cloud technologies, both public and private (AWS, Google Cloud Platform, etc.)
• Demonstrated ability to deliver solutions on-time and on-budget
• Proven ability to manage and facilitate annual operating budget and strategic planning
• Demonstrated ability to manage the day-to-day tasks of diverse teams, while effectively influencing executives on key decisions and direction
• Proven ability to inspire, motivate, and lead a team to produce quality work in the development of solutions
• Demonstrated inclusive leadership that embraces diversity
• Demonstrated ability to connect and influence others to achieve organizational priorities
• Demonstrated ability to develop teams and mentor staff
• Demonstrated ability to develop geographically and otherwise diverse highly technical teams
• Ability to communicate effectively to executive leadership in both business and technology roles
• Demonstrated exceptional critical thinking, strategic planning, and process management skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent presentation and group dynamics skills
• Demonstrated excellence in client/partner relationship management with senior executives
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required

Preferred Qualifications:

• AWS Professional certification; Solutions Architect, DevOps, or equivalent working experience
• Experience in large scale distributed systems, their development, operations, observability
• Prior experience with eCommerce technology
• Experience with ITIL

Required Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required