R&D Technical Director

Job Description

Mikros Animation is a global CGI animation studio, part of Technicolor Creative Studios, located in Paris, Montreal, Los Angeles, Bangalore and London, dedicated to feature films and episodic content. Since its inception, Mikros Animation has always put creativity and CG artistry at the heart of its animation and production activities, allowing our artists to work across a great variety of stories with a high level of stylized craft. So far, Mikros Animation has contributed to ten released feature animations and to numerous high-quality animated series, for the world's best-known animation studios, either as creative studio, line producer or executive producer. Mikros Animation has also produced more than 250 hours of programming, broadcast by notable channels including Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, TF1, France TV, Gulli, M6, Gloob, and Super RTL. Our animated episodic content airs and streams globally, in over 180 countries.

At Mikros Animation, we believe great animation is about making real connections with real people. By partnering with filmmakers to unite their creative visions, with our industry-leading craftsmanship and artistry, we create characters that connect with audiences on an authentic and emotional level to bring powerful stories to life.

The R&D TD helps create and maintain workflow tools in Maya/ Shotgrid and/or other DCCs. They work closely with the creative teams, CG Supervisors and technical artists to develop, streamline, and support workflows and to further the development of the Show Pipeline, to meet the needs of our users and the wider business.

The Pipeline team has a broad scope and diverse user group. While there is some expectation of the role to work across multiple aspects of the platform (e.g., building features, fixing bugs, general enhancements), some developers do specialize and focus on specific subject areas. This may happen immediately, or after some time having gained familiarity with different areas of the platform.

Responsibilities:
• Develop tools and associated procedures to support the core pipeline(s) by writing PYTHON and / or C ++ plugins and extensions
• Ensure the correct reporting of information in the production monitoring database
• Provide technical support in case of problems encountered by production and TAs
• Ensure that the new processes correspond to the overall framework of the Mikros Animation pipeline(s), work with other TDs, DDs, Supervisors, and seniors within the team to ensure the tool/plugin implementations are consistent across the Studio
• Work to introduce and integrate new technologies into the TD team
• Write and maintain documentation on tools and developed code
• Work to ensure the integration and maintenance of the configurations
• Organize work and prepare presentation elements for validations
• Tools to be developed in a unified manner that can be scalable/upgradable at ease in future.
• Tools to be developed in a backwards compatible manner
• Follow best practices in programming methodology and standards as laid out by Mikros Animation – Currently PEP-8
• Commenting the code, maintaining versions and backup, and following approved code deployment methodology
• Document and demo the tools/plugins functionality to the artists/end users
• Keep abreast of software upgrades to support the available tools for future projects
• Respect deadlines as communicated by the Coordination team and the Supervisor to ensure the requirements are properly prioritized
• Any tool updates to be released as beta version before rolling out, to ensure a smooth upgrade
• Tools/plugins to be released for production after comprehensive testing (unit, peer-to-peer, TAs/CG Supes and Floor) and approval from TD lead/ supe
• Troubleshoot and support any issues with the pipeline
• Actively seek assistance from seniors within the team as needed to avoid extended delays. Attend and actively participate in dailies and team meetings.
• Communicate any change in timelines well in advance to the concerned stakeholders and team members.

Qualifications
• A Diploma/Degree in Computer Science or equivalent
• At least 2-8 years of experience in a similar TD position in the animation or VFX industry
• In-depth knowledge of Python and MEL OR knowledge of Shotgrid and its API
• Linux and/or Windows development experience
• Knowledge of C++, Shell/Bash is an added advantage
• Solid knowledge of the Maya and Nuke (and/or other DCC Application) APIs and libraries like PySide/PyQt
• Strong knowledge of object-oriented programming concepts
• Experience of working within GIT or SVN
• Experience of working with Jira/SG ticketing
• Good knowledge of dataflow and software architecture
• Good knowledge of database and IT architecture
• Strong troubleshooting/debugging skills
• Excellent communication and listening skills, ability to adapt your technical and artistic discourse to the people you are addressing
• Ability to work with autonomy, self-driven.
• Experience with Agile development methodologies (Scrum, RUP, XP) is an added advantage
• Team player and problem solver, ready and willing to be a force of proposal, adaptation, and motivation
• Ability to review code and resolve related issues as they arise
• Ability to organise work effectively and meet expected production deadlines

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-r0z7mm-3-145-63-136-42 in your application.