Sr Data Scientist

The Walt Disney Company • Santa Monica, CA • 2h ago

Data scientists at Disney Direct-to-Consumer are the insights and modeling partners for the growth, content, marketing, product, and engineering teams across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. They leverage data, statistical methods, and machine learning to generate insights, predictions, and scalable solutions that inform critical decisions and shape the experiences of millions of viewers worldwide. Through model development, analysis, visualization, and data products, they build capabilities that are continuously refined through close collaboration with cross-functional business stakeholders.

As a Senior Data Scientist on the Content Understanding team, you will lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced NLP, multimodal machine learning, and large language model (LLM) solutions to support content classification, segmentation, metadata enrichment, similarity modeling, and related downstream applications across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. This role requires deep expertise in modern deep learning architectures, hands-on experience adapting and evaluating foundation models, and a strong track record of delivering production-grade AI systems in partnership with engineering and cross-functional stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Lead the design, development, evaluation, and deployment of advanced NLP, LLM, and multimodal ML solutions for content understanding use cases.

Build and adapt models for tasks such as text classification, semantic similarity, retrieval, ranking, metadata enrichment, and multimodal understanding across text, image, and video.

Fine-tune, customize, and optimize open-source and foundation models using modern techniques such as supervised fine-tuning, parameter-efficient tuning, retrieval-augmented generation, and embedding-based methods.

Partner closely with product, engineering, analytics, and business stakeholders to translate ambiguous business needs into scalable machine learning solutions.

Optimize training and inference workflows using GPU infrastructure, distributed systems, and production best practices.

Drive production excellence through strong software engineering discipline, including testing, code review, CI/CD, orchestration, monitoring, and model lifecycle management.

Contribute technical leadership through architecture decisions, best practices, experimentation strategy, and mentorship of other scientists.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.

5+ years of industry experience building and deploying machine learning models in production environments.

Strong expertise in deep learning, NLP, embeddings, transformer-based architectures, and large language model systems, including attention mechanisms, tokenization, representation learning, and modern evaluation methodologies.

Proficiency in Python and at least one major deep learning framework such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.

Experience with production ML systems, including CI/CD, job orchestration, containerization, monitoring, and MLOps practices.

Experience evaluating ML systems using appropriate technical and product metrics, and balancing quality, latency, scalability, and maintainability.

Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to cross-functional and non-technical stakeholders.

Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced environments and adapt proactively to changing priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.

Experience working with multimodal models spanning text, image, and video.

Experience with retrieval systems, vector databases, semantic search, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Hands-on experience fine-tuning and optimizing open-source foundation models for downstream applications.

Familiarity with distributed training and inference workflows for large-scale models.

Understanding of GPU infrastructure, hardware optimization, and performance trade-offs in large-scale model training and inference.

Familiarity with advanced LLM techniques such as RLHF, parameter-efficient tuning, and model adaptation methods.

DISNEYTECH

DisneyAnalytics

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, CA is $141,900 to $190,300 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 ID: 10147055

Location: Santa Monica,California

Job Posting Company: Disney Direct to Consumer

The Walt Disney Company and its Affiliated Companies are Equal Employment Opportunity employers and welcome all job seekers including individuals with disabilities and veterans with disabilities. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or apply for a position, email Candidate.Accommodations@Disney.com with your request. This email address is not for general employment inquiries or correspondence. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.

Similar Jobs

Research Data Scientist

Cedars-Sinai • West Hollywood, CA • 2h ago

IT & Engineering

Job Description Research Data Scientist (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; West Hollywood, CA): Participate in biomedical research projects using programming, data mining, statistics, machine learning, and visualization techn...

2h ago

Go to Apply

Associate Data Scientist

The MITRE Corporation • El Segundo, CA • 2h ago

IT & Engineering

Why choose between doing meaningful work and having a fulfilling life? At MITRE, you can have both. That's because MITRE people are committed to tackling our nation's toughest challenges-and we're committed to the long-t...

2h ago

Go to Apply

VP Software Engineering

The Walt Disney Company • Glendale, CA • 2h ago

IT & Engineering

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 scientist...

2h ago

Go to Apply

AI Data & Analytics Lead - Director

PwC • Los Angeles, CA • 5h ago

IT & Engineering

Specialty/Competency: Oracle Industry/Sector: Not Applicable Time Type: Full time Travel Requirements: Up to 60% At PwC, our people in business application consulting specialise in consulting services for a variety of bu...

5h ago

Go to Apply

Advanced Process Control Engineer

Marathon Petroleum Corporation • Carson, CA • 5h ago

IT & Engineering

An exciting career awaits you At MPC, we're committed to being a great place to work - one that welcomes new ideas, encourages diverse perspectives, develops our people, and fosters a collaborative team environment. Seni...

5h ago

Go to Apply

Electrical Engineer

Kelly Services • Torrance, CA • 8h ago

IT & Engineering

Job Title: Electrical Engineer Location : Torrance, CA Duration: 6 Months with Possible Extensions Pay: $50-$54/Hr. Shift: 9-80 Work Schedule - 1 st Shift 7:30am start time Job Description Design and Development: Design...

8h ago

Go to Apply

Electrical Assembler

Aerotek • Carson, CA • 8h ago

IT & Engineering

Job Title: Electrical Assembler Job Description The Electrical Assembler builds and assembles wire harnesses and electrical components used in electro-mechanical equipment. This role focuses on routing and tying wires, p...

8h ago

Go to Apply

Software Engineer

Actalent • Simi Valley, CA • 10h ago

IT & Engineering

Software Engineer Job Description The Software Engineer plays a key role in the successful implementation of system programming and machine automation solutions. This position focuses on designing and developing applicat...

10h ago

Go to Apply

Engineer

US Tech Solutions • Thousand Oaks, CA • 18h ago

IT & Engineering

$38.00-$41.05 per hour Thousand Oaks, CA Contract Duration: 12 months Contract Responsibilities: Lead development and optimization of secondary & tertiary packaging packaging for biologics, sterile injectables, and c...

18h ago

Go to Apply

(USA) Technician, Low Voltage, Licensed

Walmart • South Gate, CA • 18h ago

IT & Engineering

Position Summary... What you'll do... Job Title: Technician, Low Voltage, Licensed Company: Walmart Job Description: We are seeking a dedicated and skilled Low Voltage Technician to join our team at Walmart. This role is...

18h ago

Go to Apply

Subscribe to get new jobs sent directly to you
(no charge, cancel anytime)

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.