Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Ad Selection
Company: The Walt Disney Company
Location: Glendale
Posted on: April 1, 2026
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Job Description:
Job Posting Title: Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Ad
Selection Req ID: 10135980 Job Description: Technology is at the
heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment
and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization of
engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, data
scientists, and more – all working to build and advance the
technological backbone for Disney’s media business globally. The
team marries technology with creativity to build world-class
products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and
scalability for our businesses. We are Storytellers and Innovators.
Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with
every part of The Walt Disney Company’s media portfolio to advance
the technological foundation and consumer media touch points
serving millions of people around the world. Here are a few reasons
why we think you’d love working here: Building the future of
Disney’s media: Our Technologists are designing and building the
products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and
distribution businesses for years to come. Reach, Scale & Impact:
More than ever, Disney’s technology and products serve as a
signature doorway for fans' connections with the company’s brands
and stories. Disney. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These
products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and
events they carry – matter to millions of people globally.
Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and
techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and
distinctive technical problems. Ad Platforms is responsible for
Disney’s industry-leading ad technology and products – driving
advertising performance, innovation, and value in Disney’s sports,
news, and entertainment content, across all media platforms. As
part of the Decisioning Fleet, on the Selection squad you will help
build services and models enabling efficient ad fills for ad breaks
across Hulu, Disney, ESPN, and others. You will directly contribute
to optimizing ad selection to make sure viewers always see the
right ad at the right time. As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer
of our team, you will apply your knowledge and skills to help us
deliver scalable, performant, maintainable, and testable software
and apply ML solutions where needed. Daily, you should bring: A
willingness and desire to effectively communicate and collaborate
across teams and systems. An understanding of the importance of
project ownership. A passion for mentoring, learning, and adapting
to a very dynamic and fast-paced environment. An understanding of
micro-service encapsulation and loose coupling, and why they are
important. An understanding of ML models and knowledge of how to
leverage their use online and offline. An understanding of how to
define technical and operational metrics to measure system health
and to manage risk. Kindness and pragmatic optimism.
Responsibilities: Designing, implementing, and testing logic to
serve ads effectively adhering to various business criteria either
with rule based or ML based solutions in a high-throughput,
low-latency microservices environment. Enhancing systems’
observability with proper metrics, monitors, and alerts. Reading
and understanding product user stories, and then translating them
into actionable tasks for both frontend and backend components.
Taking ownership of one or more of the team's domain areas.
Understanding and using automated tools (AI) while adhering to
company policy. Available for On-Call rotations based on the team’s
escalation policy and support schedule. Basic Qualifications: BS or
MS in Computer Science / Engineering or relevant work experience. 5
years of software engineering experience. Proficiency with Java
Proficient in large scale ML/DL platforms and processing tech
stack. Experience in large scale machine learning using tools such
as scikit-learn, Spark MLLib, pytorch Experience with LLM-based
application development, using LLM-as-a-service providers such as
AWS Bedrock, Azure Cognitive Services, or Google's Vertex AI
Experience using frameworks such as LangGraph, Crew AI, and strands
sdk for developing agents Experience with vector databases and
retrieval-augmented generation Demonstrable analytical /
problem-solving skills. Strong knowledge of and experience
implementing AI/ML technologies and applying mathematical and
statistical concepts. Great communication, collaboration skills,
and a strong teamwork ethic with both technical and non-technical
audiences. Preferred Qualifications: Experience with: SpringBoot
and related Spring projects. Non-relational database technologies
like DynamoDB. Caching datastores such as Redis, ValKey or
MemCache. Data Streaming Mechanisms such as Apache Kafka and/or
Kinesis. Cloud platforms such as AWS. Modern DevOps tools such as
Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes. Domain knowledge in the Ad Tech
industry. Additional Information: Engineers are expected to be in
the office four days a week. This role is hiring in Glendale,
Seattle, San Francisco, or Santa Monica DISNEYTECH The hiring range
for this position in Los Angeles, CA area is $141,900 to $190,300
per year and in San Francisco, CA is $155,400 to $208,400 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. Job Posting Segment: Ad Platforms Job
Posting Primary Business: AP - Engineering Primary Job Posting
Category: Machine Learning Employment Type: Full time Primary City,
State, Region, Postal Code: Glendale, CA, USA Alternate City,
State, Region, Postal Code: USA - CA - 2450 Broadway, USA - WA -
925 4th Ave Date Posted: 2026-01-28
Keywords: The Walt Disney Company, Goodyear , Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Ad Selection, IT / Software / Systems , Glendale, Arizona
