Manager, Mastering

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.

The Mastering department is responsible for the mastering of all titles produced by 20th Television, ABC Signature Studios, Freeform, FX Productions, Disney Branded Television, Hulu, and other production entities, including content acquired for Disney+ and Hotstar. The Mastering department liaises with studios, production companies, post-production, third party audio and QC vendors to acquire, QC, prepare and transform both preliminary and final materials for localization, servicing, and global archival purposes. The Mastering department is the gateway between production and consumption of over 300 television series enjoyed by global audiences on multiple platforms including Disney+, Hulu, Hotstar, FX, ABC Network, Disney Channels, and Freeform.

Job Summary:

The Manager Distribution Operations’ primary responsibility is to ensure their direct reports (Mastering Professionals) are adhering to Mastering SOPs and communicating effectively. The Manager will also be a subject matter expert on specific brands (ABC Currents/ABC News/ABC Alternative/Freeform), leading discussions and initiatives pertinent to those brands. Managers in Distribution Ops are expected to be experts at managing meetings, leading and communicating on priorities relevant to their brand, and sending a weekly report to the Director and Senior Manager. Often called upon to work together to help us improve processes and systems, Managers aim to operationalize daily to “work smarter not harder”, make use of metrics initiatives to improve operations, and ultimately ensure the best consumer experience possible. Managers assist in vendor management by leading our weekly meetings and requesting Root Cause Analysis/Preventative Actions through our CASE system. Managers must also identify the difference between a scaled/operationalized process/decision tree and exception management – and elevate the latter to leadership accordingly.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Managing team and mentoring team’s scaled-process work within Disney systems for orders, post schedule management, agendas, as well as weekly leadership reports.  Developing team’s talent and skillset as well as expectations of performance
• Vendor Management: reviewing QC reports and issues to ensure vendor and ensuring assets are delivered in on time to the right specification. Reviewing vendor performance metrics against SLAs and established timelines.
• Title Management: ensure challenging, exceptional and new workflows for titles are managed partnering with direct reports to manage admin and document new workflows

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience required
• Minimum of 8 years working in Post-Production, Mastering, or related area of distribution
• Minimum of 3 years of managing a team of professional-level employees
• Has experienced level understanding of the motion picture post-production process (asset creation, mastering and QC) and technical delivery requirements (ProRes, IMF, Audio); in addition to documentation and timed-text
• Familiarity with and/or affinity for Disney Branded television, ABC & Freeform brands and products

Preferred Systems & Software Knowledge:

• MS Office Suite (Sharepoint/OneDrive/M365; Excel, Word, Powerpoint, CoPilot, etc.)
• DOT or Salesforce-based software
• Wonderland or Media Asset Library Experience
• Power BI
• Airtable
• Aspera
• Domo
• Smartsheet
• Workday
• Software development UAT experience

The hiring range for this position in California is $103,500 to $138,800 per year based on a 40 hour work week. The amount of hours scheduled per week may vary based on business needs. 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.