# Ian Birnam > Lead Technical Program Manager at Disney Streaming Location: Oakland, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/ianbirnam Lead Technical Program Manager, Curriculum Developer, Product Manager, and Software Engineer with experience in media streaming software, engineering, UI/UX design, and developing technical curriculum Domain Expertise: Education, Device Pairing, Payments, Audio Streaming, Media Streaming, Media/Entertainment Technical Experience: C#, XAML, Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Android, Universal Windows Apps, Xbox One, Java, Git, Visual Studio, Expression Blend, Node.js, Gulp, C, Apple, Android, Rust, Roku Design Experience: Wireframing, UX Design, Prototyping, User Research, AI, PS, Sketch ## Work Experience ### Lead Technical Program Manager - Disney+ Commerce & Identity @ Disney Streaming Jan 2022 – Present • Leading a global portfolio of 64 complex, cross-functional programs across bi-monthly releases, aligning roadmap priorities & driving execution across engineering & partner stakeholders that generated $2.12B+ in cost savings by reducing subscriber churn & increasing subscriber count • Improve delivery predictability by defining integrated milestone plans, KPI-based reporting, & formal risk mitigation, including a formal risk register (risk register with owners/mitigations) to resolve dependencies early. • Leading & developing a team of 5 program managers (2 promotions), setting consistent planning/reporting expectations to scale execution across multiple workstreams. • Building foundational systems & documentation that improved experimentation workflows by 34%& debugging speed by 61% across engineering & partner teams between Q4 2024 & Q2 2025. • Standardize program leadership via a repeatable Cross-TPM role + runbook; supported major launches including Star+ and ESPN on Disney+ at large content/concurrency scale. • Strengthen operational readiness by creating repeatable runbooks for on-call readiness & incident response across teams. ### Senior Technical Program Manager - Disney+ Microsoft Devices @ Disney Streaming Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area Lead the launch of the native Microsoft Windows Desktop Disney+ application, and the modern re-design of the Hulu app on TV devices ### Curriculum Developer / Program Manager @ Make School Jan 2018 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area • Built curriculum for over 40 classes across 6 technical tracks with instructors, bringing industry-relevant topics and tools taught through project-based, active learning methodologies. • Led the initiative to revamp our fall 2019 curriculum to accommodate double the student population, which included the creation of a new course, and cross-team collaboration across 5 other courses to align on learning outcomes and curriculum. • Created a program for students on improvement plans to get help outside of class/office hours through one-on-one and peer support, increased the success of the improvement plans by 50%. • Built repeatable systems to streamline and scale the college team through templates, training, and best practice documents, saving each instructor about 5 hours of work per week. • Fixed and created tutorials across six teaching tracks, reduced student complaints on tutorials by 85%. • Led the integration of automated grading software, increasing instructor grading efficiency by 300%. ### Product Manager @ LISNR Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area • Designed, prioritized, and drove new feature development efforts with Jaguar Land Rover which resulted in a strategic partnership. • Designed key products across strategic initiatives, managed their development, and launched them as user-facing mobile and desktop sample apps on our public GitHub page. • Prioritized and led feature development for the release of three SDKs and two other pivotal products, that launched us into the payments sector and secured funding. • Led the redesign of our customer web portal, which led to a 53% increase in page views, and a 57% increase in multi-session users. • Created plans for a product and sales entry into two industries by researching and assessing the market, building a roadmap and backlog, and positioning the product to sales to secure new customers. • Presented to C-level executives, pitch to potential investors and customers. ### Product Manager @ BAMTECH Media Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area • Acquired Vertigo Software, transitioned from Creative Developer to Product Manager • Led the process of integrating the Vertigo design team into the BamTech partner product/design team. • Created a PM on-boarding process and trained one senior and two associate PMs respectively. • Designed and prioritized feature development for Riot Games on their esports video streaming app across three platforms, leading to BAMTECH's first partnership with an esports company. • Defined product requirements and 100s of user stories for an internal video streaming app for GoPro, oversaw its design and roadmap, and led its development onto four platforms. ### CS10 Instructor / TA / Head Reader / Reader / Lab Assistant @ UC Berkeley Jan 2011 – Jan 2016 | Berkeley • Instructor – 06/2016 - 08/2016: Responsible for curriculum, giving lectures, writing/grading exams, holding office hours, and managing staff of TAs and Readers. Introduced new lecture topics around Design, Git, Agile Development, Scoping, OOP, and Graph Theory. • TA – 08/2013 - 05/2014: lead a lab and discussion section for the course, created discussion curriculum, graded exams, and held office hours. • Head Reader - 08/2012 - 05/2013: Managed and lead a team of readers in grading of assignments. • Reader – 01/2012 - 05/2012: Graded homework, quizzes, and projects for a CS course designed for students who are new to CS. • Lab Assistant – 01/2011 - 08/2011: Assisted in administering labs and discussion sections for Berkeley students that are new to the CS field. Created a lesson plan for a discussion section that incorporated higher level computer science concepts, ranging from tree recursion to Google’s search indexing algorithms. ### Creative Developer @ Vertigo Software Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | San Francisco Bay Area • Launched 7 apps across 5 platforms for major broadcasting companies (Turner Sports, Golf Channel, HBO, etc.) as the front-end engineering lead. • Contributed UX design, analytics implementation, project management, and product management amongst various teams. • Transitioned to Product Manager role after BAMTECH acquisition ### Creative Developer Intern (Summer 2013) @ Vertigo Software Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | San Francisco Bay Area Built the front-end for the CW Network app for Xbox One, a launch-day app for the platform. ### Creative Developer Intern (Summer 2012) @ Vertigo Software Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 | San Francisco Bay Area Front-end lead for an internal On-Demand Movie App for Windows 8, as well as an internal website. ### Human Centered Design Researcher @ Berkeley Innovation Jan 2011 – Jan 2014 | Berkeley, CA. • Designed desktop, mobile and tablet browser-based UIs for Vertigo Software’s employee time-tracking system. • Designed an innovative medical-based application that will read QR codes on prescription bottles and present the information to the user in a simple, easy to read display. ### Lead Music Critic @ The Daily Californian Jan 2011 – Jan 2014 | Berkeley, CA. • Leadership role amongst Arts & Entertainment staff. Wrote weekly blogs, two or more reviews of major music releases and one in-depth feature on local acts per month. • Was the first writer to record Daily Californian exclusive performances with local artists and incorporate them with interviews and other multimedia ### Undergraduate Researcher for Ensemble Computing Portal @ UC Berkeley Computer Science Department Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | Berkeley, CA. • Increased computational science resources on Ensemble, a multi-million dollar graduate research project funded by the National Science Foundation. Researched and tested Drupal module efficiency to enhance Ensemble’s performance. • Trained newly hired research assistants for future projects relating to Ensemble and computer science education. ## Education ### BA in Computer Science University of California, Berkeley ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ibirnam --- Source: https://flows.cv/ianbirnam JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/ianbirnam/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-25