Senior Product Manager-Licensing Approval/AI Systems (Project Hire)

This is 2.5 year Project Hire role through March 2028.

Senior Product Manager-Licensing Product Approval & AI Systems

About the Role & Team

This role sits in the Disney Consumer Products (DCP) - Licensing Technology organization within Disney Experiences (DX), a division of The Walt Disney Company (TWDC).  The Senior Product Solutions Manager (Project Hire) will report to the Manager, Technology

The Senior Product Solutions Manager will identify workflow improvements, facilitate conversations with our Licensing Product Approval and Artificial Intelligence Systems’ stakeholders across the global Disney Consumer Products (DCP) Segment and technology partners to align overall business and technical objectives.  This role will drive change management plans to prepare the business for next generation features in licensing product approval and AI platform. This person will collaborate with project management and software development teams to support the launch and ongoing operational improvements of our Product Approval and Artificial Intelligence Systems.

The successful candidate will have a global perspective, looking across all regions when developing solutions to meet the needs of the organization.  The Senior Product Solutions Manager will ensure IT processes are repeatable, recommending smart approaches to gather requirements and deliver projects while providing business value. The candidate will identify and assess potential “forward-thinking” solutions for both technical and business feasibility. 

You will be able to work well under pressure, thrive on change, and seek opportunities to find solutions for new business opportunities. You will be detail oriented, have strong communication skills as well as be able to operate and interact at many levels in an organization.
 

What You’ll Do

• Design and manage the full-cycle development of DCP technology products from ideation to delivery with an understanding of Disney’s Licensed merchandise product lifecycle
• Translate licensed product approval or AI model governance goals into a technology product strategy and roadmaps by effectively communicating with global business partners
• Collaborate with engineering, design, architecture, and quality assurance partners to ensure development is in line with product strategy and roadmap
• Define processes for DCP applications and platforms, system specifications, and working parameters for software use and compatibility
• Develop Proof of Concept prototypes collaborating with engineering, architecture and technical operations 
• Connect with users regularly to have a deep understanding of their needs, pain points, and how they experience your products
• Develop and document clear, actionable requirements and user stories for the development team, including well-defined acceptance criteria and alignment with test scenarios.
• Create supporting wireframes and business process models to visualize and validate proposed solutions.
• Participate in and influence technical discussions to solve complex business/system problems
• Prioritize the product backlog and make recommendations to business partners and leadership while considering trade-offs
• Establish product release plan and set expectations with new feature delivery
• Perform analysis across a complex finance environment to assess data accuracy, troubleshoot issues, and answer partner questions
• Create user training documentation and host user training sessions for product adoption
• Demonstrate knowledge and mastery of Agile project methodology and change management principles

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• 5+ years of experience in Product Management, defining and implementing end-to-end product strategies influencing the business
• 4+ years of experience in building consumer-quality technology products from ideation to launch/support
• Experience with complex, highly integrated product approval systems, including interfaces with Digital Asset Management (DAM), Contract Management, Data Warehousing, Master Data Management (MDM), and Product Master solutions
• Demonstrated ability to define and shape future products by contributing to the framework (architecture) used across multiple products or systems.
• Expertise in multi-layered technical environments which shape next generation initiatives
• Experience in creating product roadmaps for new and existing products
• Excellent organizational and communication skills, with the ability to balance multiple priorities and set expectations
• Proven leader that nurtures positive relationships with business users and technology engineering partners
• Ability to explain complex concepts in a digestible way across business and technology partners at all levels
• Experience in Agile/Scrum methodologies

• Excellent analytical, trouble shooting and problem-solving skills with attention to detail
• Ability to lead cross-team projects
• Basic Understanding of AI/ML Concepts: Familiarity with supervised/unsupervised learning, model training, data labeling, inference, etc.
• Data Literacy: Ability to evaluate data quality, understand data sources, and collaborate with data scientists on feature engineering.
• Experimentation & Metrics: Knowledge of A/B testing, model evaluation metrics (precision, recall, F1, accuracy), and model drift.
• Ethical AI Awareness: Understand risks of bias, fairness, transparency, and privacy in AI deployments.
• Model Lifecycle Awareness: Experience with the AI/ML lifecycle (data prep → training → validation → deployment → monitoring).

Preferred Qualifications

• Understanding of Licensing and Consumer Products industry with demonstrated domain experience in AI Model Evaluation, Digital Asset Management and Contract Management Systems including, but not limited to AI development processes and practices
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification
• SAFe Agilist certified
• Deep understanding of tools such as Jira, Confluence, among others
• Peripheral certifications such as CSM, PMP, CBAP, etc.
• Experience with FlexPLM application

Education:

• Requires BS/BA in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field
• MBA or other advanced degree preferred

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The hiring range for this position in California is $135,000-$165,000 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.