Sr. Manager, Post Production Engineering & Technical Operations

Full Time Job
Job Summary:

As part of the Studio Technology team, you'll be joining a group of seasoned technologists solving a range of interesting problems in innovative ways in an exciting , fast-paced environment. The Sr. Manager of Post Production Engineering oversees a team of professionals working on pre-release theatrical films and Direct to Consumer (DTC) shows. This Sr. Manager position will provide operational management and engineering direction for the PPE groups of (40Shop, Machine Shop, AV Engineering) and also be accountable for operational guidance and direction in conjunction with the Manager of the Technical Trades groups (DMC Engineering, Avid Engineering, Sound Engineering, Finishing).

We are looking for a dynamic leader, from a technical support environment associated with production or post-production, able to comfortably oversee complex technical support teams. You're able to multitask in a highly complex, diverse, production environment; able to quickly prioritize decisions given ambiguity at times. Your passion for engineering systems should be visible to your team, stakeholders, and in everything you deliver. You take engineering for the business seriously, and that will help you make decisions that drive value every day.

You are: self-directed, and able to effectively engage with Sr. Leadership at all levels of the organization being able to both manage and (re)prioritize the multiple concurrent and competing challenges, issues, ambiguities, and contradictions that, inevitably, occur when supporting production. You are able to operationalize your groups with strong Project management and forecasting using analytical and metric approaches to visualize team workload to leadership and stakeholders; someone who will enact leadership decisions and is a team-building leader with good interpersonal, verbal, and relationship building skills. You are able to interact seamlessly with clients and executives, and serve as the face of PPE and Studio Technology services.

Responsibilities:

• Accountable for direct management of a team of engineers that support filmmaking, including all systems, storage, networks management and support
• Design, develop and manage operational plans and procedures covering all aspects of support and maintenance, communications (both intergroup and client-facing), and downtime response
• Accountable for work in collaboration with various Architecture & Operations groups to meet the needs of productions based around the world
• Accountable to enact leadership vision of expected processes and procedures as well as metrics and analytics that roll up to leadership and stakeholders.
• Managing PPE groups (Traditional & Technical) in defining and documenting projects and assigning tasks to team members to deliver on business needs.
• Accountable for teams to design and develop standards-based configurations for operations, deployment and administration of all systems and storage
• Manage and identify deficiencies in production environment, isolating root causes and implementing remediation steps to bring about quick resolution and work with other groups or stakeholders to remediate.
• Accountable for making sure support engineering team is collaborating with Architecture & Operations groups to make sure that operational standards are being met and reviewed
• Accountable for effective collaboration between technology staff and other internal technology teams that provide support services
• Manage the fulfillment of the vision of Architecture & Operations Leadership as it relates to working with various groups, including Post Production Services, Content & Information Security, Enterprise IT, IT outsourcing partners, and broader Studio Technology groups
• Accountable for management and reporting to departmental leadership the performance on internal deliverables as well as 3rd party, domestic or offshore technical support projects and suppliers
• Accountable for the management of Support Engineering group technical operations in the most cost-effective way for a 24x7 shop
• Work with departmental leadership to manage key vendors and partners, both internal and external
• Accountable for service levels and is an escalation participant for tickets related to any PPE issues or production concerns
• Work with departmental leadership to manage budgets, forecasts and 5-year plans for the engineering support
• Responsible for equipment/software maintenance contracts and renewals
• Responsible for 3rd party service contracts

Basic Qualifications:

• Strong technical troubleshooting skills and problem management experience as it relates to technical operations and production workflows.
• Extensive Management experience, preferably from a production support environment, able to comfortably oversee highly knowledgeable technical staff
• Able to multitask in a highly complex, diverse, systems and networking environment
• Able to quickly prioritize and make important decisions given incomplete and conflicting knowledge
• Highly self-directed, being able to both manage and (re)prioritize the multiple concurrent and competing challenges, issues, ambiguities, and contradictions that, inevitably, occur when supporting systems and networks
• A team-building leader with good interpersonal, verbal and relationship building skills
• Ability to adapt to new technology trends
• Strong technical leader who can successfully support high availability production environments
• Exemplify quality, inclusive leadership skills that harbor collaboration
• Situational and strategic awareness of the environment for quick and decisive identification of issues and bringing about resolution
• A tactical thinker with strong organizational skills and ability to quickly pivot as priorities shift
• Able to communicate issues effectively across technical teams as well as to those that don't possess technical knowledge
• Customer-driven, able to provide solutions and reassurance to customers
• Digital Intermediate experience a plus
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, and thus able to explain and document the systems to their diverse audiences

Preferred Qualifications:

• 10 years of experience supporting and maintaining highly complex enterprise storage and server environments within a media production/post-production environment
• Recent hands-on experience with SAN/NAS storage devices, SAN switches
• You understand Production support Service Level Agreements and tiered support methodologies
• Experience in Digital Production environments
• Large-scale routing, switching, firewalls, and load-balancing techniques
• You've Implemented and managed Data transport toolsets, and file mover technologies

Required Education

• A Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Information Systems, IT Engineering, Math or a related field; or extensive industry experience

About The Walt Disney Studios:

For over 95 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company was built. Today it brings quality movies, episodic storytelling, music, and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. The Walt Disney Studios encompasses a collection of respected film studios, including Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight Pictures. It is also home to Disney Theatrical Productions, producer of

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