R&D Department Manager

Job Description

Technicolor Creative Studios is a creative technology company providing world-class production expertise driven by one purpose: The realization of ambitious and extraordinary ideas. Home to a network of award-winning studios, MPC, The Mill, Mikros Animation and Technicolor Games, we inspire creative companies across the world to produce their most iconic work.
Our global teams of artists and technologists partner with the creative community across film, television, animation, gaming, brand experience and advertising to bring the universal art of storytelling to audiences everywhere.

With offices all over the globe, the Moving Picture Company (MPC) is one of the world's leading visual effects studios, creating high-end VFX for the advertising and feature film industries. Developing new visual effects techniques and creating cutting edge software tools is vital to MPC's continued success. This is the responsibility of the R&D team, where MPC seeks to appoint a Department Manager R&D Department Manager - London to help running a very busy department and manage the day to day operations.

A summary of what you will do

This is a critical requirement for MPC's R&D team, which makes up 10% of our entire workforce and serves our production units. You will be line managing [EP1] [ZR2] a team of 60 developers, project managers and coordinators and working alongside 4 other heads of department at the point where people and project management meet. You will be contributing to our incredible movies and making sure our technical operations run smoothly.

Responsibilities

Department Management
• Ensures smooth operation of all R&D departments for a local site (Production Technology, Product Development, Core Engineering, Digital Transformation, QA/DevOps/Support) or for a single business unit.
• Responsible for general administration and resource management.
• Lead a team of Project Managers and Coordinators
• Working with the Global Head of R&D Operations to continuously improve how the department functions.
• Working with R&D Heads of Department to ensure teams have the resources to carry out their day-to-day duties.
• Liaising with HR, Recruitment and Resources Management on a regular basis.
• Ensures training, travel, conferences and other activities are well planned and managed.
• Responsible for line management of software developers: manage the employee relationship, including being the communicator regarding key matters relating to their employment. Manages their career progression and performance assessment. Collaborates with Talent Management (HR) where relevant.
• Own and run department meetings by presenting departmental, local studio, and global (where relevant) information.
• In Conjunction with Talent Managers: Performance management, appraisal, and career progression guidance of department members in consultation with the Head of Departments and, ensuring individual performance has been assessed correctly and feedback communicated
• In conjunction with the Head of Departments, identify gaps and high potential employees within the department; helping to ensure we have the right employees in the right place at the right time.
• Manage and assign duties to the Department Assistants, Coordinators, and Project Managers.
• Respond to ad-hoc business requirements
• Leadership
• Be a mentor, ambassador, and representative of MPC's culture
• Actively drive and influence people's behavior and actions to ensure they are aligned with the company values, vision, and mission
• Promote communication between colleagues for the benefit of information flow and to curb any problems that arise
• Engagement and Proposition
• Champion a positive and creative culture of high service level.
• Initiate reward and recognition activities
• Roll out company initiatives within the department
• Assist with the management of new starters ensuring a positive experience into the studio and department

Your profile:

You should be great at tuning & refining processes. We expect you to be able to identify pain points and sell the role of R&D within our organization through the quality of your reporting.

You should be great at managing the expectations of our customers and understanding what they want.

We'd like you to demonstrate natural leadership, communication and charisma to manage the day to day of running a team and drive meetings.

You should love films and be excited to be part of the production of fantastic shows.

Qualifications

Your experience:
• Extensive commercial experience, preferably as part of an Agile software solutions team
• Experience working in an IT Service Delivery Capacity
• Experience of experience in a full-time management capacity leading software development teams.
• Understanding of common project management tools and methodologies
• An understanding of the software development lifecycle
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills
• Adept in skillfully juggling tasks; organized and focused
• A strong commitment to service, quality and , reliability
• A personable nature who knows how to be upbeat and motivate teams in times of delivery
• A degree in software engineering and/or management would be a strong asset.
• Experience in VFX, video games, or similar industries would be an asset

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gxx38q-3-144-12-205-42 in your application.