Technical Director, Interactive & Experiential

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.

Mill Experience is a strategic studio within The Mill creating mixed reality, virtual events, experiential activations and interactive products for brands and agencies.
The globe-spanning team of forward-thinking technologists and creatives works on innovation consultancy, project management, design, and execution to dream and build concepts beamed from the future.
From augmented reality to artificial intelligence, we use our unrivaled expertise to craft memorable visual experiences to engage and captivate audiences.

The Mill is looking for a Technical Director who can manage and execute technical projects using a full stack of software, across a broad spectrum of interactive and experiential work within The Mill Experience team.

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

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 talent within the team; supporting mentorship, fostering a fun and creative culture and leveraging the skillsets of new and existing talent.

As a passionate member of the 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; engaging key stakeholders in the development, execution and evaluation of commercial and non-commercial projects and initiatives.

Responsibilities:
• Play a critical role in shaping the technical vision and practices for the Creative Technology team while working closely with production and creative leadership to deliver the best of interactive and experiential projects.
• Establish in-house frameworks, boilerplate-code and coding conventions for use on both client and internal projects to streamline development.
• Design, prototype and build new and innovative digital experiences using emerging technologies to accelerate the breadth and quality of Mill Experiences.
• Oversee build pipelines for project deployments and delivery, developing automated build processes where possible.
• Ensure the successful delivery of commercial and non-commercial projects, as well as being able to pivot on technology and creative when the project demands it.
• Work collaboratively with world-class creatives, technologists and production teams across all our studios to drive positive results and outcomes.
• Instill strong software development methodologies and problem-solving skills.
• Nurture a culture of experimentation within Creative Technology team, on both commercial and non-commercial projects.
• Clearly communicate complex solutions and challenges in an easy to understand way, to both technical and non-technical staff and clients (brands and agencies).
• Stay current on relevant technology and conduct necessary research, due diligence, prototyping and testing to assess emerging technology options.
• Contribute towards winning new projects by developing creative treatments in response to client briefs, RFPs and RFIs
• Developing creative technical solutions that are exciting and in keeping with the project's goals, timings and budget.
• Collaborate closely with other studios and departments to share pipeline innovations and improvements as well as helping to integrate department platforms and tools.
• Ensure technical documentation is completed for all projects and guide other members of the team in continuing this practice.

Qualifications

Technical Skills:
• Experience building highly polished browser based web experiences across mobile and desktop, leveraging common web frameworks such as ThreeJS.
• Experience building interactive projects using game engines such as Unity or Unreal with C#, C++ and Blueprints.
• Experience with web technologies and frameworks both server side and client side.
• An understanding of good user experience and how to implement best practices into interactive projects.
• Working knowledge of building networked multi-user game experiences.
• Extensive domain knowledge of videogame/real-time production pipelines.
• 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.
• Ability to build interactive and game-like functionality with a sensitivity to in-game visual development.
• Knowledge of 3D exchange formats for meshes, materials, animations and textures.
• Extensive graphics knowledge and experience with recent Unreal/Unity features is a plus.

Experience:
• 10+ years of professional software engineering for interactive experiences required.
• Computer Science BS, MS or PhD degree preferred or equivalent experience.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-g6bp30-18-191-239-123-42 in your application.