Director Of Creative Technology

Job Description

The Mill is a global creative partner for agencies, production companies and brands, working across all media channels and platforms.

We are trusted specialists in visual effects, creative technologies and content production Our projects include the creation of digital products and virtual experiences, as well as world class visual effects and video production.

We are a vibrant network of talented artists, producers, directors and creative technologists from multinational backgrounds. We nurture innovation, flexibility and diverse ideas across our studios in London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Berlin and Bangalore. We are all united by one single ambition: To create extraordinary and memorable work that captivates and excites audiences.

We are The Mill. We create the extraordinary.

The Mill's flagship studio, Mill London, opened its doors in 1990. Located in London's Fitzrovia, the studio is home to over 300 creators working across Mill VFX, Mill Direction and Mill Experience projects. The Mill's London home overlooks the iconic BT tower, and is surrounded by some of the best eateries in town. The London creative community often gathers on The Mill's rooftop bar and terrace, which plays host to a number of industry and staff events.

We are looking for a Director of Creative Technology who can manage a global team of creative technologists, developers and technical artists, as well as develop technology pipelines and architect solutions using a full stack of software across a broad spectrum of interactive and experiential work.

You are an experienced and talented engineering leader who can build infrastructure for creating next-generation client and public-facing interactive experiences with sensitivity to ambitious creative and quality output.

You and your team will work with a MillX multidisciplinary group of artists, producers and strategists to develop groundbreaking interactive and experiential products for our clients. We combine expertise from the interactive and film industries to advance real-time visuals and experiences.

As an owner of core development principles, you will drive continuous process improvement and innovation by identifying inefficiencies in current processes, improving agility of the team, and adopting industry trends for innovation.

We expect a strong focus on developing the team, supporting mentorship, fostering a fun and creative culture and leveraging the skillsets of new and existing talent.

As a passionate leader of the Creative Technology team, you will be continually analyzing the technology landscape, evaluating short and long term implications, and communicating strategies and change initiatives clearly.

You will develop and leverage internal and external partnerships and networks to maximize the achievements of the Creative Technology team and the MillX business, engaging key stakeholders in the development, execution and evaluation of commercial and non-commercial projects and initiatives.

Reports to: Group Director, Emerging Technology and CTO

Works With: ECD and Creatives, Executive Producers & Producers, Engineering, R&D

Direct Reports: Heads of Creative Technology, Creative Technology team

Responsibilities:
• Play a critical role in shaping the technical vision and practices for the Creative Technology team while working closely with MillX production and creative leadership to deliver the best of interactive and experiential projects.
• Hire, mentor and develop the global Creative Technology team for maximum impact and org health.
• Define and refine best practices for an evolving and boundary-pushing team.
• Establish in-house frameworks, boilerplate-code and coding conventions for use on both client and internal projects to streamline development.
• Apply design practices to novel situations and thrive on learning new tech stacks and frameworks. Be equally comfortable designing solutions to operate at Mill scale or diving deep into project-based mission-critical bugs.
• Instill strong software development methodologies and problem-solving skills.
• Ensure technical documentation is completed for all projects and guide other members of the team in continuing this practice.
• Stay current on relevant technology and conduct necessary research, due diligence, prototyping and testing to assess emerging technology options.
• Nurture a culture of experimentation within the MillX and Creative Technology teams, on both commercial and non-commercial projects. Proactively come up with ideas for new workflows, plugins, etc.
• Contribute towards winning new projects by developing creative technology solutions and proposals in response to client briefs, RFPs and RFIs in keeping with project goals, timings and budget.
• Design, and supervise the prototype and build of new and innovative MillX projects using emerging technologies,
oversee deployments and delivery, and develop automated build processes where possible.
• Ensure the successful delivery of commercial and non-commercial projects, as well as be able to pivot on technology and creative when the project demands it.
• Clearly communicate complex solutions and challenges in an easy to understand way, to both technical and non-technical staff and clients.
• Collaborate closely with across studios and VFX departments to share pipeline innovations and improvements as well as helping to integrate department platforms and tools.

Qualifications

Requirements:
• 10+ years of professional software engineering for interactive experiences required; 5+ years of which in a management role.
• Self-motivated, with little guidance needed, and an ability to work on multiple projects and prioritize tasks for each in an agile manner.
• Excellent communication and team management and interaction skills.
• An understanding of good user experience and how to implement best practices into interactive projects.
• Extensive domain knowledge of interactive/videogame/real-time production pipelines using technology such as Unity or Unreal with C#, C++ and Blueprints.
• Extensive graphics knowledge, a sensitivity to in-game visual development, and experience with recent Unreal/Unity features.
• Experience with mobile app development and deployment to Android and iOS.
• Familiar with Application and Transport layer networking protocols.
• Knowledge of data structures, algorithms and 3D math.
• Knowledge of 3D exchange formats for meshes, materials, animations and textures.
• Solid software engineering skills, including the ability to write robust, maintainable, well-architected, well-documented code.
• Experience creating artist content creation tools.
• Familiar with hardware capture devices.
• Experience with motion capture equipment such as Xsens, Opti-track, Rokoko.
• Experience creating Software Development Kits.
• Working knowledge of prototyping and building large interactive environments, synchronized visual effects, and particle systems.
• Experience with web technologies and frameworks both server side and client side.
• Experience building highly polished browser-based web experiences across mobile and desktop, leveraging common web frameworks such as ThreeJS.
• Computer Science BS, MS or PhD degree preferred or equivalent experience.

Nice to have:
• Working knowledge of building networked multi-user game experiences.
• Experience leveraging AI & Machine Learning for tooling and artistic

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Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gkv7mk-18-217-83-97-42 in your application.