Sr Manager, Engagement

The Walt Disney Company's Disney Entertainment (DE) group includes the company’s full portfolio of entertainment media and content business globally, including streaming (Disney+ and Hulu,).

DE-DTC Engagement is a highly visible team of professionals with backgrounds in consulting, investment banking, private equity, media & entertainment, and advanced analytics who serve as in-house advisers to the Disney Streaming Services’ executive leadership and Disney Ad Sales organization and own the engagement planning process. The team’s activities and accomplishments have contributed to the rapid growth and success of the Disney Streaming Services.

Job Summary:

We are seeking a Senior Manager who will play a key role in growing our direct-to-consumer business, with a focus on leading the team that builds the Engagement forecasting of our SVOD and DMVPD businesses, for both Disney+ US and Hulu.

Within this role, you will own the continued buildout and enhancements of our Engagement forecasting & planning infrastructure, models, and processes for our SVOD and DMVPD (Hulu Live) US businesses. You will interface with senior executives of our organization regularly and play a key part in providing strategic support, financial analysis and forecasting support to drive our subscriber engagement & retention. In addition, you will work closely with content, programming and ad sales to optimize monetization of subscriber engagement. As a manager of people managers, you will also lead and develop a team of high potentials.

The right person for this role possess exceptional leadership skills, is an excellent communicator, sets a high bar for themselves and their teams, and must display initiative in anticipating and exceeding the business demands of key stakeholders. This role will be data-focused, responsible for sharing business insights, providing strategic recommendations, and influencing key operational decisions.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Develop a world-class Engagement forecasting infrastructure and models for our Hulu SVOD and DMVPD businesses to support strategic decision making on engagement relevant topics and to fulfill demands of our ad sales operations.
  • Forecasting engagement implies forecasting human behavior of our 50M+ subscriber base, across different services, products, bundles, and geographical regions. You will predict how subscriber behavior is impacted by internal (i.e. content launches, product changes, content expirations, etc.) and external (i.e. macroeconomic environment, competitor behavior, etc.) events.
  • With the engagement infrastructure you build and improve, you will quantify any business problem from any area of our company with minimal guidance and no templates to build on. The majority of this work does require advanced statistical data analysis and big data interpretation, paired with a strategic view on market developments, consumer behavior changes as well as a deep product understanding.
  • You will work hand-in-hand with Data Analytics, Data Science, Data Engineering, and Product to incorporate the latest statistical and machine learning methods to enhance the accuracy of our models and to roll out new models for new markets.
  • Leverage the Engagement forecasting infrastructure to value content deal from traditional perspectives and ad monetization perspective.
• Lead the overall forecasting, business planning, and budget process for Hulu (SVOD and DMVPD) user engagement in collaboration with Content, Marketing, and Data Analytics:
  • Capture, process, and interpret short-term trends in engagement metrics for Hulu SVOD, Hulu + Live TV, and Hulu on Disney+. Then extrapolate the impact trends could have on targets, develop business solutions that mitigate risks or lean into opportunities.
  • Create engagement forecasts for all our Hulu streaming products in close collaboration with Marketing, Content, Product, Analytics, Business Operations. These forecasts quantify the businesses’ product, content, marketing, and pricing strategies, incorporate macroeconomic trends, and include projections not yet launched/developed products
• Lead the executive reporting of Hulu engagement trends and produce insights that are shared across the company and make actionable recommendations on marketing and content strategy and be the key engagement contact person for our senior executive leadership
  • Make recommendations on content to share across services to maximize viewing hours and viewing monetization
• Provide ongoing support to our senior executive leadership team and the Ad Sales organization with accurate and timely information on near-term engagement trends and levers to ensure engagement target achievement
  • Analyze the holistic impact of promotions, product changes, content launches, and content launch timing on subscriber engagement to optimize growth and engagement monetization (i.e. ad revenue)
  • The proximity and exposure to senior executives also leads to a fast pace, high stakes environment with high work load and irregular working hours
• Actively develop and manage the careers of direct and indirect reports

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

• 6+ years of professional experience in Tech, Media, Management Consulting, or Investment Banking / Private Equity
• Bachelor’s degree with a major in Finance, Economics or similar discipline with an analytical bias; MBA from a top graduate business school (or equivalent experience) is a plus
• A passion for the media industry and content as well as a natural curiosity for analytical challenges
• Strong analytical capabilities and financial modeling skills (MS Excel); proficiency in SQL is a plus
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills (including PowerPoint) and ability to simplify complex matters for an executive audience
• Highly competent with quantitative data analysis and utilizing data to drive decision-making
• Organized, self-motivated and comfortable working without guidance, in a fast-growing environment with multiple partners
• Familiarity with working in or with global, large organizations

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica is $147,300.00 to $202,500.00 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.