As a Pipeline Technical Director, you will have a deep involvement in designing and developing innovative tools to overcome specific challenges related to the department’s developments for our next animated feature film. This effort seeks to implement solutions that off-the-shelf software would not provide while maximizing productivity and meeting the high quality standard set by the company. The scope of the developments may be from a simple python script to a larger development involving complex algorithms.
TDs are embedded within the productions to closely collaborate and support the artists and production management
Reports to the Production Technology Supervisor on the status of technical development projects, tool performance, production operations and support
Develop and maintain the required tools following the requirements supplied by the production departments and following the Production Engineering Team guides
Partner with Artists and other Engineers to iterate, debug, document, and refine tools and processes for feature film production
Acts as the first line of support to solve day-to-day problems artists may encounter
Work on short-term needs, originated by shot challenges
Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, or comparable discipline and/or technical and creative knowledge gained through equivalent experience
3+ years of experience; preferably within computer animation, visual effects, or the game industry
Experience supporting animation pre-production departments such as Story, Editorial, and Previs, a plus
Expert in Python
Experience programming with one or more of the following software: Maya, Houdini, and Nuke
Experience with Post and Preproduction workflows
Experience with one or more Non-linear editing suites: e.g. Avid Media Composer, Premiere, Resolve
Familiar with common media encodings and transcoding software: e.g. ffmpeg
Experience in Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems
Experience working with a source version control system (git)
Experience with agile development and scrum methodology
User interaction design with a working knowledge of standard UI toolkits (e.g. Qt/PySide)
Experience with pipeline and plugin development in third party DCC tools preferred
Experience with software development languages such as Java, Javascript, C++ preferred
Experience with other toolkits and systems such as Docker, Git, AWS preferred
Skydance is a diversified media company founded by David Ellison in 2010 to create high quality, event-level entertainment for global audiences. The Company brings to life stories of immersive worlds across its feature film, television, and interactive platforms. Its feature films include Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Annihilation, LIFE, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Star Trek Beyond, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Terminator Genisys, World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Jack Reacher, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and True Grit. Skydance’s upcoming film releases include Top Gun: Maverick, Gemini Man, The Old Guard, 6 Underground and the nwe untitled Terminator film. In 2017, Skydance formed an animation division to develop and produce a slate of high-end feature films and television series in partnership with Spain’s Ilion Animation Studios. Skydance Television launched in 2013. Its current slate includes Emmy-nominated Grace and Frankie on Netflix, Altered Carbon on Netflix, Jack Ryan on Amazon, and Condor on AT&T Audience Network. Skydance Interactive launched in 2016 to create and publish original and IP-based virtual reality experiences and video games. Skydance Interactive recently debuted its first original title – Archangel, a story-driven VR shooter.
