Lead Data Scientist

Key Skills

Algorithms, Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Apache Airflow, AWS, Data science techniques, Databricks, Deep Learning, Docker, Effective communication skills, Infrastructure as code, Leadership Skill, Looker, Machine learning techniques, Mathematical modeling, Metadata, SPARK Programming, Tableau, Writing

Job Description

On any given day at Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, we’re reimagining ways to create magical viewing experiences for the world’s most beloved stories while also transforming our media business for the future. Whether that’s evolving our streaming and digital products in new and immersive ways, powering worldwide advertising and distribution to enhance flexibility and efficiency, or delivering Disney’s unmatched entertainment and sports content, every day is a moment to make a difference to partners and to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

A few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

• Building the future of Disney’s media: DE&E Technologists are designing and building the infrastructure that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
• Reach & Scale: The products and platforms this group builds and operates delight millions of consumers every minute of every day – from Disney+ and Hulu, to ABC News and Entertainment, to ESPN and ESPN+, and much more.
• Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms and enhance how audiences experience sports, entertainment & news.

Our team develops and maintains recommendation and personalization algorithms for Disney Streaming’s suite of streaming video apps, notably Disney+ and Hulu. As a member of this team you will collaborate across Engineering, Product, and Data teams to apply machine learning methods to meet strategic product personalization goals, explore innovative, cutting edge techniques that can be applied to recommendations, and constantly seek ways to optimize operational processes.

This is an Individual Contributor role in content recommendations. You will be expected to lead recommendation and personalization algorithm research, development, and optimization for product areas, and to coordinate requirements and manage stakeholder expectations with Product, Engineering, and Editorial teams. You will be expected to help meet KPIs for product areas and to set and meet deadlines for external and internally facing tools, such as offline evaluation tools for pre-production algorithms. As an IC, you will also be responsible for helping to set the roadmap for algorithmic work — not only for how to approach product requests for new recommendation features, but for helping to drive larger company objectives in the areas of personalization and content recommendation.

• Algorithm development and maintenance: Utilize cutting edge machine learning methods to develop algorithms for personalization, recommendation, and other predictive systems; maintain algorithms deployed to production and be the point person in explaining methodologies to technical and non-technical teams

• Analysis and Algorithm Optimization: Perform deep dive analysis on app interactions and user profiles as they relate to algorithm output in order to drive improvements in key personalization metrics

• MVP development: Develop innovative machine learning products to be used for new production features or downstream by production algorithms

• Development Best Practices: Maintain existing and establish new algorithm development, testing, and deployment standards

• Collaborate with product and business stakeholders: Identify and define new personalization opportunities and work with other data teams to improve how we do data collection, experimentation and analysis

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of analytical experience and a Bachelor’s degree in advanced Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science or comparable field of study

• 7+ years of experience developing machine learning models and performing data analysis with Python or R

• 5+ years writing production-level, scalable code (e.g. Python, Scala)

• 5+ years of experience developing algorithms for deployment to production systems

• In-depth understanding of modern machine learning (e.g. deep learning methods), models, and their mathematical underpinnings

• In-depth understanding of the latest in natural language processing techniques and contextualized word embedding models

• Experience deploying and maintaining pipelines (AWS, Docker, Airflow) and in engineering big-data solutions using technologies like Databricks, S3, and Spark

• Familiarity with data exploration and data visualization tools like Tableau, Looker, etc.

• Understanding of statistical concepts (e.g., hypothesis testing, regression analysis)

• Ability to gauge the complexity of machine learning problems and a willingness to execute simple approaches for quick, effective solutions as appropriate

• Strong written and verbal communication skills

• Ability to explain how models are used and algorithms behave to both technical and non-technical audiences

Preferred Qualifications:

• MS or PhD in statistics, math, computer science, social science, or related quantitative field

• Production experience with developing content recommendation algorithms at scale

• Production experience with graph based models (e.g. node2vec)

• Experience building and deploying full stack ML pipelines: data extraction, data mining, model training, feature development, testing, and deployment

• Experience with graph-based data workflows such as Apache Airflow

• Experience engineering big-data solutions using technologies like EMR, S3, Spark, Databricks

• Familiar with metadata management, data lineage, and principles of data governance

• Experience loading and querying cloud-hosted databases such as Snowflake

• Familiarity with automated deployment, AWS infrastructure, Docker or similar containers

The hiring range for this position is $159,400.00 to $259,100.00 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. 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.

About Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology:

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology (DE&E Technology) provides the technological backbone and product development for Disney’s two media business units, while helping to keep the company at the vanguard of innovation – enabling the Company to continuously leverage technology to enhance storytelling and creativity, while delivering scalability, flexibility, and efficiency for its businesses.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with the following business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, Disney Parks, and Experiences and Products. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney’s stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

This position is with Disney Streaming Technology LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology.