Sr Content Partner Mgr at Disney in Santa Monica, CA

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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and distinctive technical problems.

Content Platforms & Operations is responsible for the development and ongoing advancement of the technical and operational functions driving the worldwide distribution and monetization of Disney’s linear networks and theatrical content. This includes Disney’s media supply chain and storage, network and theatrical distribution operations, media localization, network transmission and origination, and more. The global team also plays a critical role as the primary collaboration point for Product & Technology with Disney’s EMEA, APAC, and LATAM regional business teams.

Content Partner Management (CPM) is a cross-functional, technology and business-facing team within the Content Platforms & Operations team, and part of the Disney Entertainment & ESPN Product & Technology organization. CPM is responsible for the operational execution of Disney’s streaming content agreements with both internal and third-party content providers. The team is responsible for managing the full content lifecycle, inclusive of partner integration, content delivery, launch planning and scheduling, content remediation, and building product requirements against partner agreements. Serving as a central point of contact between content partners and internal stakeholders, the team ensures seamless execution of contractual obligations, technical specifications, and both technology and business priorities across the organization.

As super-users of Disney’s content management systems, CPM plays a critical role in driving continuous platform improvement by providing feature feedback and operational requirements.

Job Summary:

As Senior Content Partner Manager, you are accountable for executing program requirements outlined in the partner agreements, technical specifications, and business objectives. You will build and maintain cross-functional relationships with content providers and ensure the successful launch, and in-app experience, of their brand and content on Disney’s streaming products. A qualified candidate will have the technical and business fluency to lead multiple projects, partnering with stakeholders across technology, operations, product, and business to facilitate conversations and execute deliverables. You will drive the content launch plan, execute short and long-term projects, while maintaining the agility and responsiveness to quickly and effectively address ad-hoc issues. In this role you will also play a leading part in establishing new operational frameworks to support high-volume content partnerships at global scale—including content that launches first in the U.S. and subsequently expands to international markets. This requires deep fluency in MovieLabs (MDDF) specifications, content localization and multi-territory delivery, and the ability to partner seamlessly across technical and business teams to formalize and document workflows that do not yet exist.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Build, integrate, and manage high-priority and/or high-volume partnerships with our content providers, accountable for ensuring all relationship goals are met and contractual requirements are executed.

• Independently identify and implement new and improved processes, frameworks, and governance that reflect team feedback, are agile, and will scale to meet business needs

• Partner with Operations, and other PMO and delivery teams, to ensure successful delivery and launch of content within business expectations and requirements.

• Hands-on execution in the Content Management System to enter Content Partner contract details and program avails, rights, and brand elements, ensuring proper product experience for our users.

• Provide program governance across workstreams with clear and consistent communication of project level status for senior leadership, project sponsors, and stakeholders.

• Maintain deep working fluency in MovieLabs (MDDF) specifications—including Media Manifest Core (MMC), Media Entertainment Core (MEC), EMA Avails, and manifest/component delivery structures—to guide partners through technical delivery requirements and facilitate conversations between partners, technology teams, and business stakeholders, partnering with operations, product, and engineering teams as the technical owners of these standards

• Coordinate content localization and multi-territory delivery needs—including dubbed audio, subtitles/timed text, forced narratives, audio description, and territory-specific ratings, descriptors, and compliance requirements—guiding partners through these requirements and partnering with operations, product, and engineering teams to ensure localized components are correctly ingested and presented across international markets.

• Design, formalize, and document net-new operational workflows to support high-volume content partnerships and evolving content delivery models at global scale, partnering with Content Acquisition, TPM, and Media Platform teams where established processes may not yet exist.

• Serve as an operational lead in coordinating global launches across phased, first-of-kind rollouts—including U.S.-first launches with subsequent international expansion, multi-territory avails and takedowns, and market-specific compliance—partnering across business and technical teams to deliver on time.

• Lead operational and strategic process improvements across day-to-day workflows and cross-functional initiatives, enhancing operational efficiency while ensuring scalability and alignment with business needs.

• Proactively identify and manage risks, issues, and dependencies. Independently develop plans to escalate and mitigate.

• Monitor partner compliance against terms and conditions.

• Keep up-to-date with new technologies and recognize how it can impact CPM work/relationships.

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

• BA/BS or equivalent experience

• 7+ years of partner management experience collaborating with both internal and external partners

• Strong leadership skills with the proven ability to direct team members across multiple internal departments

• Proven ability to build and maintain strong external partnerships, manage operational deliverables, and drive effective cross-functional communication

• Advanced knowledge of the streaming industry, streaming technology, content rights, content management systems, and other tools, processes and technologies involved in executing a world-class streaming product

• Ability to translate complex concepts between technology and business partners, including technical specifications related to content delivery and localization, and effectively communicate status updates to senior leadership

• Deep working fluency in MovieLabs specifications (MDDF), including Media Manifest Core (MMC), Media Entertainment Core (MEC), and EMA Avails, with the ability to guide partners through their application to complex, component-based content delivery

• Hands-on experience with content localization at scale—including dubbed audio, subtitles/timed text, forced narratives, and audio description—and the operational requirements of delivering localized content across multiple international territories

• Experience supporting global or international content launches, including phased or day-and-date rollouts across multiple markets, and familiarity with territory-specific compliance, ratings, and localization requirements

• Proven ability to build, formalize, and document new cross-functional processes in ambiguous, first-of-kind environments, partnering across technical (engineering, product, TPM) and business (content acquisition, partnerships, legal) stakeholders

• Demonstrated excellence in an agile, fast-paced and cross-functional technology environment

• Experience with platforms and tools such as JIRA, ServiceNow, content management systems, and program/product management software

Preferred:

• Experience in streaming, broadcast, or digital media distribution operations, including familiarity with streaming technologies and related operational workflows, strongly preferred.

• Direct experience onboarding streaming content partners at scale, and familiarity with high-volume, evolving content delivery models, strongly preferred