Technical Director

Job Description

TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR REMOTE WORK YOU MUST RESIDE IN MONTREAL

MPC Film is one of the world's leading visual effects and film production companies. With technology at its core, MPC Film is the market leader and trend setter in a highly competitive market. We are looking for candidates who believe in the magic of film and are as excited as we are to work in a fast paced and ever-changing industry.

MPC is home to brave creators who are eager to combine innovation, craft and creativity to bring entirely different ideas and experiences to audiences everywhere. Working at MPC is where passion and purpose come together; we support new ways of thinking to empower talent as we continue to lead the industry.
Our status as a world-class visual effects facility has been achieved through the development of industry-leading software, which empowers our artists to create stunning visual effects. MPC has a rich history of technical innovation. We recognise that it's the partnership of leading creativity and technology that delivers spectacular results. We are committed to technology in service of creativity and are constantly exploring new approaches to deliver higher quality. We have a talented team and many of the leading technologists in the industry started their careers at MPC.

We have created a collaborative team environment where 2D, 3D VFX Artists and TDs work alongside each other to create stunning, award-winning visual effects for our Clients.

Reporting to the Head of CG for MPC Film and MPC Software Department to prioritise show needs, the Software TD plays a key role in establishing and facilitating the technical roadmap of MPC Film's tools. As a Software TD you will understand and feed into the improvement of our pipeline and workflows as defined by the Head of CG, and in alignment with the broader FEV Software standards and practices.

You must maintain a close relationship with the Creative group (Supervisors, leads and artists) in the various disciplines to build awareness of discipline needs, knowledge of user workflows and guide design and development of software department projects that service your team and their disciplines.

The Responsibilities
• Help MPC Film adapt the existing pipeline and tools to their new approach and operating as the front-line support for artists
• Create elegant solutions and tools to speed up workflows, alleviate bottlenecks and facilitate production
• Maintaining MPC Film specific software projects and tools
• Collaborating with Software to identify broader issues that could benefit the overall FEV group, aiming to boost efficiencies across the board
• Creating quick scripts, macros and tool for bespoke and/or repetitive tasks that would take artists far too long to perform by hand.
• Remain in close contact with Software and will be expected to conform to R&D operational and coding standards. Film TDs will remain informed of larger FEV initiatives and included in general R&D department meetings and presentations and align with Software on key projects as benefits Film.
• Constantly trying to reduce personal technical debt by following strict MPC code style standards.
• Including descriptive ''doc-strings'' with all written classes and functions for automated code reference documentation
• For larger projects, writing unit tests that run various production scenarios through your code so that bugs can be caught before deployed in production

Qualifications
• Very strong Python knowledge
• Strong experience using at least one or all the following applications as a technical artist: Houdini, Nuke, Maya, Katana, etc.
• A good understanding of artist workflows and how the tools they use work
• A passion for moving technology forward to empower artist creativity through alleviation of multi stepped technical processes
• Experience using the python API of a digital content creator application like the aforementioned
• Functional knowledge of Linux based distributions
• Familiarity with the concepts of registering files on a database to facilitate a large team of artists, working across multiple sites

Desired Qualifications
• Knowledge of Renderman
• Experience with C/C++, Lua and/or other scripting languages
• Familiarity with developing technology for a large team of artists, working across multiple sites
• Knowledge of color pipeline
• Knowledge of shotgun application

Attributes
• Ability to establish and maintain a professional rapport with clients
• Excellent ability to work under pressure
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to prioritize and delegate tasks
• Work well with others in a team environment
• Demonstrates an aptitude for leadership
• Excellent communication and organizational skills
• Excellent problem-solving ability
• Pleasant manner

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rvebwj-18-221-98-71-42 in your application.