Senior Manager, Software Engineering (Core Systems)

Senior Manager, Software Engineering (Core Systems)

Disney Digital Entertainment, a division of Disney Entertainment, is redefining how audiences interact with The Walt Disney Company. The mission is creating the "digital front door" that unites all of Disney's magic into a new interactive universe.

Disney Digital Entertainment is looking for an engineering leader who wants to help a team of experienced engineers do their best work. You will lead the people and day-to-day running of the Platform Engine team, building Unreal Engine and UEFN technology, tools and pipelines.

This role will report to the Director of Engineering, Game Engines. The team is fully remote across the Nordic region.

Curious what it's like to work here? One of the engineers on our Nordic team describes the work and the team in this Life at Disney story: Leveling Up Video Gaming Experiences at Disney.

What You Will Do

Lead and Grow the Team

Manage a team of around 6-8 senior and mid-level engineers, who report directly to you. The size may shift a little with the work. Hold regular 1:1s, give clear and honest feedback, run yearly performance reviews and help each person build a development path that fits them.

Lead the Team Day to Day

Take an active part in standups, planning and retros alongside the team's producer. Make the calls that unblock the team and keep work moving, and follow through on changes to how we build and ship. Own capacity and vacation planning, and make sure everyone knows what matters right now and has what they need to get it done.

Turn Direction into Plans

Work with the Director of Engineering and producers to turn priorities into plans the team can deliver. Assign people to work, spot risks early and adjust the plan when priorities shift.

Stay Close to the Technology

Spend part of your time on real technical work: picking up programming tasks, reviewing code, debugging with the team and keeping up with Unreal Engine and UEFN. You need to understand the work well enough to support the people doing it and to make good calls on scope and trade-offs. Hands-on work is welcome here, as long as it does not become the job.

Lead a Remote Team

Build the habits, communication and trust that keep a distributed team connected and productive. Look after the team's wellbeing and work environment as well as its output.

AI-Empowered Development

Use AI tools in your own work and help the team keep raising the bar on how we build software. The team invests heavily in AI-assisted workflows and expects its leaders to push that forward.

Collaboration

Work with engineering managers, producers, designers and partner teams across Disney, including teams in the US. Represent the team's capacity and needs, and keep cross-team dependencies visible.

What You Bring

Engineering Background

You've worked as a programmer or software engineer, ideally in games, and moved into management because you wanted to. You have hands-on experience with C++ and game engines, ideally Unreal Engine, and you still enjoy getting into the technical details.

People Leadership

You have led engineers before, as a manager or a lead, including performance reviews, career development and difficult conversations. People who worked for you got better at their jobs, and they trust you.

Planning and Organization

You bring structure without bureaucracy. You can take competing priorities and turn them into a plan the team understands and believes in.

Comfort with Change

Platform teams get pulled in new directions as new opportunities appear. You stay steady when priorities change and help the team find the opportunity in it.

Clear Communicator

You explain plans, trade-offs and technical topics clearly to engineers, producers and stakeholders, and you share difficult news honestly and with care.

Nice to Have

Experience with UEFN and Verse, Perforce and build pipelines, or working closely with external technology partners. The rest you can learn on the job.

Where You Will Be

This role is remote. You can work from Sweden / Denmark / Norway / Finland. Travel may be required a few times per year, typically around 2-4 trips annually, depending on your location. Travel may include destinations within the Nordics as well as other countries.

This position is with The Walt Disney Company Nordic AB, which is part of a business we call Disney Consumer Products.

To learn more about Disney's guidelines on the use of AI for candidates, click here.

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