Manager Systems and Server 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 in the Disney Signature Experiences organization within Technology & Digital for Disney Experiences. It works closely with technology teams and business partners from across the company.

About The Role & Team:

As the Manager of Systems Engineering at Disney Signature Experiences, the successful candidate will be responsible for leading a diverse team of skilled engineers to design, implement, and maintain robust and resilient systems that support our fleet's operational needs and enhance the guest experience. You will play a key role in ensuring the reliability, scalability, and performance of our systems, working closely with cross-functional teams to achieve our technology goals.

What You'll Do:

• Oversee finances and budgets in MyPPM, ensure accurate billing processes, and contribute to forecasting and accrual processes to maintain financial integrity and support organizational objectives
• Manage teams performing the design, analysis, evaluation, testing, debugging, and implementation of applications
• Supervise the analysis, installation, acquisition, modification, and support of operating systems, databases, or utilities software
• Lead teams in planning, conducting, and directing analysis of business problems for automated systems
• Guide development, testing, evaluation, or design of system or infrastructure architecture
• Engage in estimation and planning across the organization, voicing recommendations, feedback, and solutions from a technical perspective and aligning to the overall project goals to deliver on-time & in-scope
• Proactively track and assess emerging technologies across the industry to inform strategic decision-making and recommendations
• Lead and mentor a team of systems engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with delivery teams to help with the design, implementation, and maintenance of scalable and reliable systems that meet the needs of our onboard and shore-based operations.
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring timely delivery and alignment with company objectives. Projects include tool or platform upgrades, system migrations, new application provisioning, and security & compliance initiatives to name a few examples.
• Ensure the performance and reliability of systems through continuous monitoring, proactive maintenance, and incident management. This includes providing operational support, participating in post-incident retrospectives, and ensuring that permanent fixes are put in place.
• Implement and enforce security best practices to protect guest and cast data and maintain the integrity of our systems. This includes timely remediation of control findings and participating in penetration testing and management audit.
• Identify opportunities for process improvements and drive initiatives to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the systems engineering team. This includes expansion of automation, playbooks, observability, etc.
• Ensure comprehensive documentation of system designs, processes, and procedures.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum 8 years of related work experience, with at least 2 years in a leadership or managerial position.
• Experience with automation tools and frameworks (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes) is required.
• Strong technical background in systems engineering, including experience with Windows & Linux systems, networking, cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure), containerization, scaling, etc.
• Strong SQL skills and experience
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities, to ensure effective growth and development of team
• Practical experience using agile methodologies. Experience with variety of software delivery methodologies (ex. Agile: Scrum, Lean, etc.)
• A visionary who motivates teams to excel and fosters creativity, consistently driving excellence in all endeavors
• An advocate for a diverse and inclusive culture that encourages innovation and ensures every team member feels a sense of belonging
• Authority in industry standard systems engineering platforms, applying expertise to drive the development and implementation of data solutions
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.

Examples of supported technologies include, but is not limited to:

• AWS
• Chef
• Docker
• Terraform
• Ansible
• Couchbase
• Apache
• Nginx
• Tomcat
• ElasticSearch
• Rancher
• Angular.js
• Node.js
• Spring/Java
• Rundeck

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior Cruise Line or Maritime experience preferred.
• Extensive experience in any of the below technologies preferred:

• Terraform/Atlantis
• AWS Cloud (Fargate, ECS, Lambdas, ApiGateways, EC2, S3, ALB/ELB, Elasticache, EKS, KMS-Secret Manager, VPCs, IAM)
• Logging/Monitoring/Alerting (Cloudwatch/Splunk/AppDynamics/Elasticache/Grafana)
• Rundeck, Chef, Ansible, Vault
• MessageQueueing: RabbitMQ, PubSub
• Google Cloud Platform (App Engine, Kubernetes ( Helm/Tiller ), Cloud Functions, Firebase, IAM)
• Load balancers
• Languages: Go/Python/ Node.js (Angular.js framework)/Java (Spring MVC)
• Service-Now
• Kafka
• Redis
• Azure DevOps
• Red Hat Open Shift

Required Education:

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

Preferred Education:

• Industry certification in related technologies preferred.

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: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, and interactive media. 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 special 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 loved.

This position is with Disney Worldwide Services, Inc., which is part of a business we call The Walt Disney Company (Corporate).

Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status. Disney cultivates a business culture where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories, and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation.