Sr Product Manager

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About StudioLAB

StudioLAB is where the Studios embrace what’s next.

The next great story always asks something new of us. StudioLAB is where we figure out the answer by bringing creative and technical talent together to tackle the problems that matter most to The Walt Disney Studios. We give our filmmakers and business teams a trusted space to test ideas, pressure-check assumptions, and shape the strategic decisions that help us bring our best stories to the world.

Through our Strategic Innovation Partners, alongside a wider network of best-in-class collaborators, we accelerate market-ready expertise and technology where it counts, prototype quickly, and turn promising experiments into proven tools and new opportunities the Studios can confidently scale.

Our team is a deliberate mix of filmmakers, engineers, producers, and inventors, fluent in both creative ambition and technical reality. Anchored on the historic Walt Disney Studios Lot in Burbank, StudioLAB is where we close the distance between “what if?” and what actually works.

Role Summary

We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to join StudioLAB: someone who wants to shape the next generation of creative and production technologies and build solutions that enable the storytellers at The Walt Disney Studios.

As a Senior Product Manager, you will work across engineering, design, and product leadership to deliver technology-enabled proofs of concept and prototypes for business stakeholders across the Studios and the banners. You will define and drive the vision and delivery plan for a portfolio of innovation projects, in partnership with our Innovation Partners and wider network of collaborators, and you will own scope, product requirements, and execution against them.

You will be the key point of contact across business stakeholders, technology teams, creative partners, and vendors, and you will own communication about project vision, goals, progress, and future state. You bring a product mindset to innovation work - front-loading risk, structuring for rapid learning, and making sure each phase produces a decision, not just a deliverable.

This role requires someone who adapts quickly to unfamiliar technologies and problem spaces, navigates ambiguity, and can outline a credible path from problem to solution in previously un-navigated territory. We are looking for someone collaborative, open-minded, clear communicator, and outcome-oriented who can move innovation out of the lab and into production use by the business.

What You'll Do

Scope and define

• Understand the problem space, gather business requirements, and define project scope so stakeholder goals are met and deliverables are proportional to the business opportunity.

• Author and pressure-test intake cases against StudioLAB's greenlight framework - Studio priority fit, mission alignment, value driver, partner leverage, transfer path, and investment proportional to return.

• Be able to clearly represent and speak to the technical and business aspects of any project being proposed or scoped

• Identify where Innovation Partner or collaborator resources can accelerate development, and give those partners a clear understanding of their role and contribution within the larger project.

Drive delivery through the 5Ps

• Own projects across Prep, POC, Prototype, Pilot, and Product, preparing the evidence and recommendation required at each go/no-go gate.

• Define what success looks like up front and assess the viability of a new technology solution based on POC and prototype results, then recommend next steps to your business stakeholders.

• Map each project to one or two value drivers, Cost, Growth, Productivity, Quality, or Innovation, and report progress against them.

Own the transfer path

• For prototypes ready for adoption, work with Studio Technology, Production Technology, banner engineering teams, or partners to define and execute the transfer path from innovation into production.

• Support receiving teams through Hypercare, including documentation, codebase transition, and roadmap handoff.

Direct partners and vendors

• Oversee and direct the work of partner teams and vendors, providing the feedback and guidance needed for the final product to meet project goals.

• Track partner contributions, including Value-In-Kind, and flag where a contribution is under-delivering against what was scoped.

Communicate and align

• Ensure development and design teams understand the strategic vision and direction set with business stakeholders.

• Communicate updates, risks, and blockers clearly to senior-level executives across the Studios.

• Operate as a diplomatic negotiator at the intersection of creative, development, design, and other Disney teams, building relationships and driving consensus across multiple parties.

Solve problems

• Work in an agile, diplomatic manner across a cross-functional team to find and deliver solutions to complex, ambiguous problems.

• Contribute to the lab's operating model reporting standards, intake quality, and delivery practice, so the next project runs better than the last.
  

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in product management, technology production, or production technology, including experience shipping software solutions.

• Prior experience working in entertainment technology.

• Demonstrated ability to translate creative needs into scalable technology solutions.

• Experience working with vendors and navigating large, matrixed organizations with senior-level executive stakeholders.

• A clear and concise communicator, skilled at building easy-to-understand Keynote presentations and adapting messaging to the audience whether they are a senior executive, partner, or team member.

• A quick learner who can adapt to the needs of different businesses, roles, and stakeholders.

• Acts and where necessary leads with a can-do, positive, and collaborative mindset; an excellent and inclusive team player.

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in the entertainment or media technology space.

• Experience using or developing AI-enabled tooling for production needs.

• Hands-on prototyping experience with AI-assisted development tools or vibe-coding.

• Experience working at Disney, and preferably within The Walt Disney Studios.

• Experience with XR or game engine technologies.

Experience managing projects from concept through production handoff in a lab, R&D, or advanced development

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