Manager, Software Engineering - ML Products

This job is with Warner Bros. Discovery, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.

Welcome to Warner Bros. Discovery… the stuff dreams are made of.

Who We Are…

When we say, “the stuff dreams are made of,” we’re not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD’s vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the creators bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what’s next…

From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.

We are the now and the next. The power behind the people building the future. We are born from the spirit of innovation. We are created from the idea that people around the world want more, need more, deserve more. We are the home of the global digital revolution. We are CNN.

To see what it’s like to work at CNN, follow @WBDLife on

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About the Team

With deep domain expertise, advanced technical capabilities, and a proven track record of successful collaborations, the AI Enablement & Machine Learning team at CNN is accelerating our digital transformation through strategic applications of ML and AI technologies. Our current products include popular, related and personalized content recommendations, contextual ad targeting, and site search-serving millions of CNN users via CNN web and mobile apps. This year we are partnering with teams across the company to democratize AI at CNN. Our "multiplier" approach allows our team to have outsized organizational impact by providing domain expertise, enabling teams, collaborating deeply, and building shared infrastructure.

About the Job

The team is composed of multiple squads : a platform squad along with cross-functional squads that leverage the platform to develop products. As the Engineering Manager for a products squad, you will manage 5+ engineers with varied backgrounds and focuses :

Machine learning engineers focusing on traditional model development and AI engineering with foundational models

Engineers of various backgrounds who are now focused on AI integrations

Backend engineers focusing on data availability, API development and client integrations

Full stack engineers who contribute to our CMS

You will collaborate effectively with product managers, program managers, designers and engineers across squads and teams to plan and execute on traditional machine learning and AI engineering with foundational models. And you will grow the squad as needed to support the increasing demand for machine learning work.

Here are some of the key challenges our team will tackle this year :

Launch Recommendations Autofill : Support testing and adoption of a CMS component that will allow programming and editorial staff to add several types of recommendations anywhere on the site, filtering by attributes like content type and section.

Launch Editorially Curated Homepage Module : Support testing and adoption of a CMS component that will allow editorial to curate a candidate pool and pin items and recommend from that pool.

Enhance Site Search : Add CTV content types, add keyword / multi-stage search, and implement a number of other enhancements that our product team is planning now.

Experiment with Two-Tower : Incorporate additional user context in our personalized recommendations model such as geolocation, time of day and time of year

Build Bandit Foundation : Partner with the platform squad to enhance data access and begin experimenting with bandits for online ranking of recommendations

Optimize Site Performance : Dynamically deliver personalized content alongside cached assets, improving load times and enhancing user experience with features like page-level deduplication

Here are some of the things you can expect to do on a day-to-day basis :

Support, coach, mentor, and provide valuable feedback to the individuals you manage to help them excel

Work with cross-functional partners and stakeholders on activities such as planning, technical strategy, quality and delivery

Partner with engineers within the team and across the organization to build and integrate machine learning features into our site, apps, and editorial tools

Lead other engineers on the team by example, code reviews, and coaching, ensuring that code is readable, maintainable, scalable, observable, and resilient

Champion improvements to developer experience, integrations, and testing processes

Leverage vended and open-source cloud technologies to reduce maintenance costs and improve efficiencies, ensuring our products remain profitable

Collaborate with other engineers to develop and enhance core capabilities, infrastructure, and architecture

Here is the approach we value :

Author, review, and optimize production-quality code that adheres to industry standards and best practices (IaC, CICD, etc.)

Demonstrate a passion for software engineering, with a strong sense of responsibility for the code you and your team write

Take ownership of issues and be a strong advocate for your team and the products

Embrace failure as a learning opportunity—use research and experimentation to ultimately choose the best solutions that meet company goals

Follow a progressive development methodology, moving from proof-of-concept to prototype to production release

Enhance the effectiveness of your squad, the team, and our partners by sharing your knowledge, communicating about complex technologies and problems in simple terms, and driving technical decisions

Collaborate across functions, squads, teams, and organizations to best serve our users

The Essentials

We’re looking for someone with :

8+ years progressively complex experience designing, building, and shipping products

5+ years backend engineering experience with data-heavy applications

3+ years of experience with IaC, deployment pipelines, and relational databases

5+ years of experience managing engineering teams

Experience partnering with and / or leading ICs responsible for machine learning model development (data scientists, MLEs, etc.)

Familiarity with ML specific pipelines and tooling

Familiarity with experimentation frameworks and A / B testing methodologies

Deep understanding of common software data structures and algorithms, with extensive experience in modern development technologies and practices

A proven track record of building web scale products that are highly available and performant

Passion for growing engineers through mentorship, talent acquisition, and professional development

A collaborative mindset, understanding that great results come from teamwork and a positive culture

Proven success leading complex projects within an engineering team : knowing when to handle issues independently, when to rally the right people for alignment, and when to escalate

Excellent communication, presentation, and documentation skills

The Nice to Haves

Practical experience with recommendations, search and / or personalization

Practical experience building cost-effective ML solutions at scale

Experience with RAG pipelines, feature stores, or embedding infrastructure

How We Get Things Done…

This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at

www.wbd.com / guiding-principles /

along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.

Championing Inclusion at WBD

Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.

If you’re a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and / or recruitment process, please visit our

accessibility page

for instructions to submit your request.

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