Analytics & Optimization Manager

Job Summary:

Job Requirements

Disney Experiences Intelligence (DXi) influences data-driven and consumer-centric decision making with integrated, objective, and actionable insights across Disney Experiences. The Advanced Modeling team within DXi applies innovative methods to some of the most complex and consequential questions facing Disney Experiences, including advanced, scalable forecasting, attribution and causal inference, guest behavior modeling, and experimental design and survey science. These are questions with no off-the-shelf answer. We partner with executives and teams across DXi, turning complex business questions into actionable intelligence.

We are hiring an Analytics & Optimization Manager who is an expert in the science behind statistics and modern AI/ML, and an excellent Python programmer. You will bring the methodological depth to solve complex modeling problems and contribute to the team's technical growth. You are an ideal candidate if you have a strong scientific and modeling background, stay at the cutting edge of methods and are curious, resourceful, and always learning. You choose the right method for an ambiguous problem, explain why it fits, and show that it holds up.

This is an individual contributor role, reporting to Manager, Advanced Sales Analytics and is based in Celebration, FL.

What You Will Do:

Modeling and methods

• Own the methodology for modeling projects: select the method, define the assumptions, and design how the results will be validated, with a vision of how it will run at scale.
• Build scalable forecasting models that integrate structural and dynamic regression with machine learning through hybrid and ensemble approaches, producing probabilistic forecasts and scenario analyses to support planning and decision-making under uncertainty.
• Develop causal inference and attribution models to quantify the drivers of business outcomes, leveraging methods from difference-in-differences to synthetic control, instrumental variables, and double machine learning. Develop reusable frameworks that can be extended as new data and business questions emerge.
• Conduct conditional forecasts and scenario analyses under alternative assumptions and apply causal methods to estimate counterfactual outcomes and treatment effects associated with changes in specific business levers, explicitly quantifying uncertainty.
• Model guest behavior over time, using survival analysis, customer-based models, and related methods to answer important questions about long-term patterns and their drivers.
• Adapt methods when standard approaches break down, such as sparse data, short histories, or selection bias.

Technical leadership

• Apply rigorous modeling practices: validation, back testing, calibration, and uncertainty reporting. Conduct technical review of assumptions, identification, and leakage, including high-visibility results before they go to senior leadership.
• Follow and help improve team practices for reproducibility, experiment tracking, and code review, and write maintainable, well-documented modeling code.
• Evaluate emerging machine learning and AI methods, including foundation models, benchmark them against established approaches, and share findings with the team.

Business partnership

• Scope ambiguous business questions into well-posed modeling problems and recommend appropriate analytical approaches.
• Translate complex results into clear recommendations, state their limits, and push back constructively when a requested analysis cannot support the conclusion being sought.

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• Master's degree in Economics, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Operations Research, Engineering, or a related quantitative field, with 3+ years of professional data science and complex modeling experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in time-series forecasting and probabilistic (including Bayesian) modeling, and knowledge of supervised and unsupervised machine learning, including how to select and apply the right method for a given problem.
• Strong understanding of causal inference and quasi-experimental methods, and how to apply them to attribution and driver analysis, including the distinction between predictive relationships and causal effects.
• Proficient in Python, including writing clean, efficient, production-quality code
• Advanced SQL and experience with large analytical datasets (e.g., Snowflake).
• Ability to communicate complex methodology clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in a related quantitative field with 1+ year of relevant professional experience, or a Master's degree with 5+ years of relevant professional experience.
• Experience with scalable and reproducible data science practices, such as distributed or parallel computing, experiment tracking, containerization, CI/CD, or related modern ML engineering tools.
• Experience using AI coding and analysis tools to design, build, and accelerate complex modeling work, with the judgment to validate what they produce.
• Experience with additional advanced modeling methods.
• Experience evaluating and applying LLM and generative AI methods to real-world problems.
• Experience in travel, hospitality, entertainment, or consumer-facing businesses.

Disclaimer

PAY TRANSPARENCY

The hiring range for this position in Orlando is $113,500-$152,200 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.

This position is with Disney Destinations, LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Experiences.

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

Disney Destinations, LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

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The Walt Disney Company and its Affiliated Companies are Equal Employment Opportunity employers and welcome all job seekers including individuals with disabilities and veterans with disabilities. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or apply for a position, visit the Disney candidate disability accommodations FAQs. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.

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About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise that includes three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney's stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.