Senior Production Engineer

Job Description

Senior Production Engineer (SRE Architect)

Position Summary

The Senior Production Engineer is responsible for architecting and developing aspects of the VFX production pipeline, creating and deploying core services for use by other engineering teams and throughout the VFX pipeline. They will be active in both leading development projects and mentoring staff and Associate Production Engineers.

Production Engineering is responsible for designing, developing and maintaining core pipeline applications and services used by all departments throughout the company, at all our locations around the world. This includes, but is not limited to: media creation, review and communication tools, data synchronization services, core asset publishing services and the render farm tools and services. Our systems provide the core foundation of pipeline services that are essential for the smooth operation of our multi-site, award winning, visual effects company.

Primary Responsibilities
Responsible for leading development projects for new services and/or tools
Communicates with engineers, artists and productions to determine technical requirements and disseminate information regarding project status
Creates new tools and services
Exercises independent judgment in methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for obtaining a goal
May have singular responsibility for a project
Coordinate activities of others as a project lead
Advises/assists other engineers with maintenance and bug fixing of existing services
Serves as a knowledge resource for services and tools used in production at ILM
Updates and features additions to existing services
Troubleshoot service issues
Provide training and assistance to engineers and artists on toolsets and services
Expected to lead discussions surrounding future services and tool development
Collaborates with engineers, artists and productions to develop efficient services and supporting tools
Participate in the activities of the globally distributed production engineering team, including:
development and support activities
regular status and planning meetings as time zones permit
adhere to development best practices and standards defined by Production Engineering Supervisor.

Education / Experience
Bachelor's degree, M.Sc or Ph.D in Computing Science, or equivalent professional experience.
6-10 years of experience in the visual effects or computer animation industries.

Required Skills / Competencies
A positive, ''can-do'' attitude with balance: must not be afraid to ask for help when getting outside experience base or comfort zone
A clear and concise communicator: ability to keep end users informed of progress and managers informed of requests
An effective listener: able to engage with and understand artists to discover what their requirements are
An effective time manager: must be able to prioritize a multitude of requests and not be afraid to ask for help if the path isn't clear
Passionate about delivering rigorous follow-through on assigned tasks
An agile, flexible and quick thinker: this is an energetic, dynamic environment requiring an ability to adapt to rapidly changing requirements
A creative thinker and innovator: able to devise and employ ingenious solutions to difficult problems
A passionate and charismatic leader: ability to inspire and motivate

Required Technical Skills
Expert knowledge of Python programming and the Linux environment
Experience creating distributed, scalable systems that are fault tolerant and reliable
Experience designing and developing asynchronous services using tornado or other frameworks using python
Experience architecting and developing RESTful APIs
Experience working with revision control systems and defined coding standards

Preferred Skills / Competencies
Experience developing with C or C++
Experience developing and supporting scalable systems
Experience with one or more relational or NoSQL technologies such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra, ElasticSearch and/or TitanDB
Familiarity with message queuing systems such as RabbitMQ or Kafka
Familiarity with service discovery systems and distributed key/value stores such as consul, etcd and/or ZooKeeper
Understanding of storage clusters and network protocols, including TCP and NFS
Knowledge of the standard python packaging and installation tool-chain
VFX, Feature Animation or Episodic production experience is a bonus
Experience developing on Windows is a bonus

JoinILM

About Lucasfilm:

Lucasfilm is a global leader in film, television and digital entertainment production. In addition to its motion-picture and television production, the company's activities include visual effects, audio post-production and cutting-edge digital animation, interactive entertainment software, and the management of the global merchandising activities for its entertainment properties including the legendary STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES franchises. Lucasfilm Ltd. is headquartered in northern California.

This position is with Lucasfilm Animation Co. Singapore B.V., which is part of a business we call Lucasfilm.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d8223m-18-224-64-226-42 in your application.