Disney Entertainment and ESPN have a new chief technology and product officer, appointing longtime YouTube executive Adam Smith to the position on Thursday.

Smith has been hired as chief product & technology officer for the entertainment and sports media businesses, which include linear television networks, streamers Disney+, Hulu and the ESPN sports unit. In his new role, Smith is responsible for driving technology strategy, development, deployment and innovation across Disney’s streaming platforms and networks, digital consumer touchpoints, internal advertising technology and more.

Smith begins his tenure at Disney on Sept. 3 and will report jointly to Disney Entertainment co-chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro. He joins the company following the departure of Aaron LaBerge in June, who left the company to become CTO of sports betting operator Penn Entertainment. ESPN and Penn Entertainment announced a deal last year to launch an ESPN-branded sports betting operator, ESPN Bet.

Smith is an experienced technology executive and has spent more than 20 years at Google and YouTube, where he held senior roles across multiple departments. Most recently, Smith was VP of Product Management at YouTube, where he led Music and Premium, as well as Subscriptions and Commerce, since 2016.

In a joint statement, the three Disney chairmen said: “We have aggressively advanced our technology capabilities to better support our world-class media, streaming and advertising businesses, and Adam brings a bold, consumer-focused vision for the future and has demonstrated his ability to successfully lead global teams in implementing ambitious, scalable and flexible products and technologies that will continue to put storytelling at the center of the Disney experience.”

In announcing the hire, Disney highlighted Smith’s role in building YouTube’s consumer-facing products, such as growing its music and premium offerings with over 100 million subscribers. At Google, he was also responsible for leading global content and products in kids, sports, news and education. Before joining Google, Smith worked at Random House/Bertelsmann.

“I believe Disney is uniquely positioned to succeed in the next evolution of media and has made significant progress in a very short period of time with storytelling at its core,” Smith said in the announcement. “I look forward to working closely with Alan, Dana and Jimmy and their world-class teams and am excited to bring my expertise in using technology to create compelling consumer experiences that drive engagement and discovery among fans, family and friends.”

Disney turned a profit for the first time on its streaming services (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+) last quarter, generating an operating profit of $47 million. And Smith is taking over technology and product as the media company looks to integrate certain apps more tightly. That includes merging Hulu content with the Disney+ app earlier this year to create a unified user experience for U.S. subscribers of the Disney Bundle. Increasing engagement and reducing churn are two of the goals of merging the different streaming experiences, executives have noted, and Disney also plans to introduce an ESPN tile on Disney+ later this year.

On the streaming side, the company recently launched content playlists on Disney+, where U.S. subscribers will be able to access ABC News Live and a playlist focused on preschool programming starting early next month, with plans to later add four more curated feeds for premium plan subscribers tailored to their interests.

“As we continue to invest in and enhance our recommendation technology, we plan to expand this feature to include additional programmed playlists over time,” Disney executives said in a commentary alongside third-quarter results. “These efforts are all part of our commitment to offering an unrivaled streaming experience that delivers greater value to subscribers and supports our goal of achieving higher margins and improved returns on our content investments.”

The company is also working to build technology for advertisers on its streaming platforms. Disney said more than 40% of the advertising dollars it received at this year’s Upfront event are addressable, including streaming and digital.

In the pipeline, Disney plans to launch a standalone flagship offering for ESPN DTC as well as the launch of streaming service Venu Sports, expected this fall as part of a joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.