VFX Pipeline Technical Director, Prime Video Virtual Product Placement

Job Description

Job summary
As the Visual Effects (VFX) Pipeline Technical Director for Prime Video's Virtual Product Placement team, you will work with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Vision (CV) scientists and Amazon engineers on disruptive technology to revolutionize the 100 year-old Visual Effects industry at Amazon scale. You will own our end to end VFX pipeline, blending and scaling industry leading visual effects procedural techniques with computer vision and machine learning. If you are a seasoned 3D generalist professional with a passion for automation, procedural approaches, and delivering seamlessly integrated computer generate imagery, this role was made for you.

We are building a new line of business to develop scalable visual effects tools and services to drive exceptional customer experiences integrated with prime video catalog, playback, and ad-tech services. We are driving visual effects end-to-end automation using machine learning, computer vision, audio processing, and natural language understanding. Automation at scale is our mission and passion.

You are a Visual Effects (VFX) 3D Generalist and Technical Director with a passion for building efficient, scalable artist workflows and pipelines. You are equally comfortable using Digital Content Creation applications such as Maya, Houdini and Nuke as you are in working with their APIs for automation. You thrive at writing scripts whenever you see repetitive processes and ways to enable you and your artists work faster and smarter. You understand how Look Development for VFX works, are comfortable collaborating with VFX Department leads on their workflows, and are inspired about the disruptive possibilities Computer Vision and Machine Learning bring to VFX. You thrive in a start-up environment where you can wear many hats and have a large impact across a growing business.

You have an intimate knowledge of building task pipelines within Shotgrid and are comfortable designing complex workflows. You'll collaborate daily with the CG Supervisor, Software engineering and machine learning applied scientists to deliver automation solutions. You will report consult regularly with the VFX Head of Production, and the Product business team.

You understand the existing VFX industry, workflows, and pipelines inside and out. You're not afraid to explore new tool, and can cut through ambiguity with a bias for action.

Key job responsibilities
• Responsible for design and tooling for our VFX pipeline, including its global deployment across multiple vendors
• Hands-on Prototyping and innovation of automation integrations across all VFX departments (MatchMove, Modeling, Lighting, Rendering and Compositing)
• Responsible for automation integration into 3rd party Content Creation tools such as 3D Equalizer, Maya, Houdini, Arnold, and Nuke.
• Collaborate with CG Supervisor, VFX Producer, Engineering and Science on automation triggering, monitoring and reporting.
• Attention to detail, resourcefulness, and elegant problem solving skills are critical.
• Exhibit thought leadership with regards to trialing and on-boarding new software and tools into our existing VFX pipeline.
• Knowledge of cloud enabled workflows, pipelines, and delivery systems are a plus

A day in the life
You'll work with artists to understand their workflows, invent ways to automate components or entire processes, prove those ideas through hands-on prototyping, and collaborate with engineers and AI scientists to bring them to reality. You'll collaborate with CG Supervisors and VFX department leads to ensure your methods exceed the visual quality bar. You'll set up feedback channels and monitor them for continual improvement of your VFX pipeline systems. You'll develop mechanisms to measure time, storage and latency to inform data-driven decisions on where and how to optimize.

About the team
The team works in a dynamic environment where innovating on behalf of our customers is at the heart of everything we do. We're breaking new ground daily, so you must thrive on innovation and ambiguity. You must be able to clearly communicate your ideas and strategies to both technical and non-technical stakeholders to win over their hearts and minds in setting a direction based on your unique expertise.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
• 10+ Years 3D generalist VFX experience within a feature film or television VFX studio.
• 10+ years professional experience with UNIX and shared network file systems, systematic scaling of VFX pipelines, including procedural techniques through tools such as Houdini, VFX automation and process improvement
• 5+ years professional experience with a scripting language such as Python.
• 5+ years experience utilizing programming API's and file formats for Nuke, Maya, AfterEffects, and offline renderers (Arnold, RenderMan)
• Shotgrid Expert - configuration, workflow design, API integration, page design and reporting.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
• You've built VFX pipelines from the ground up using Shotgrid and an asset management system
• You have experience or certifications using AWS services such as EC2, Lambda, CloudFormation, S3, FSx
• You have experience working with containerization, such as Docker

Amazon is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or other legally protected status. If you would like to request an accommodation, please notify your Recruiter.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d9xky7-3-133-121-160-42 in your application.