Sr. Software Engineer - Application Framework

Job Description

Sr. Software Engineer - Application Framework (Feature Animation)

At Walt Disney Animation Studios, we have a deep commitment to the philosophy that creativity inspires technology, and technology inspires creativity. Engineers in our Production Technology department are charged with developing and implementing new algorithms to solve unique and challenging problems for all of our animated content. We do this working alongside a user base that shares a collaborative environment with us, and uses the code we develop to make our feature films.

We're looking for an engineer to join our Application Framework team, which focuses on supporting and expanding the core building blocks of our digital animation software stack; these building blocks help define creative workflows and data paradigms that are utilized by character artists, tools developers, and pipeline engineers alike to drive the creative capabilities of our studio. The ideal candidate will have experience in both the front and back ends of the animation software stack. You will be expected to take complex datasets and present them in familiar, intuitive ways. We want engineers who can diagnose/debug performance and architectural issues, and can recommend/implement solutions.

Critical to success in this role is the ability to build trust and relationships with technical and non-technical users, to understand their needs and pain points intimately, and to deliver relevant solutions. It is also important that you bring a sense of co-ownership, team building, and positive morale to help foster stronger collaborative teams. We embrace creativity and we seek to maintain a fun and inclusive environment that you and your co-workers would be proud to work in.

Responsibilities:

Projects include:
• Enabling the adoption of new Digital Content Creation tools such as Presto from Pixar into our content authoring experience, and developing native and novel workflows around them.
• Developing framework libraries for our in-house software tools (including both the UX framework and some of the core composition/execution libraries).
• Collaborating closely with engineers and artists at other Disney Studios to help drive the future of shared technologies.
• Building customizable artist dashboards for consolidating and managing tasks, encouraging collaboration, and enabling visibility into the characters, environments, story, and overall film making process
• Writing new tools and plugins into 3rd party apps for rough to fine story development
• Performance profiling and optimization of new and existing workflows and technologies
• Designing and implementing effective sequence-based artist workflows
• Experimenting with novel pre-visualization capabilities
• Spearheading successful integration of various databases, tools, and file resolvers into the WDAS ecosystem
• Collaborating closely with Production TDs to implement efficient and user-friendly publishing and data layering paradigms

What does it mean to be a developer here at WDAS?
• You get to work on the full stack of our tools, from developing the underlying algorithms to building intuitive artist-friendly interfaces.
• Work hand in hand with artists to make the tools we need for the incredibly complex and rich characters and environments featured in our movies.
• Develop on top of a highly performant, extendable in-house application framework.
• Develop new artist-centric interaction models using the latest hardware and technologies.
• Ability to design frameworks and infrastructures that enable future such tool development.
• You are an effective listener with an ability to engage with engineers and artists to understand requirements and help provide practical solutions to enhance productivity and efficiency for the benefit of the film making process

Basic Qualifications:
• Strong experience with C++ (up to x11/x14) *
• Strong experience with Python *
• Strong experience with Qt (for desktop development) *
• Experience designing and developing multi-threaded, interactive tools
• Proficient with user interface/software design
• Familiarity with patterns and techniques for creating interactive tools that perform at scale and allow for artistic exploration is important (eg. efficient UI updates, undo/redo, debugging, customizable user interactions, etc),
• Intimate familiarity with pipeline-oriented challenges/solutions is a huge plus, as this candidate will be expected to integrate new technologies and new data backends into a comprehensive user experience.

Preferred Qualifications:
• Strong experience writing testable code
• Experience working with a Product Design/UX Engineering team
• Experience in the computer animation process (eg. games/films/visual effects)
• Master's degree or higher in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or other related field; or comparable industry experience

Required Education

BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or other related field (or comparable industry experience)

WDAS continues to build on its rich legacy of innovation and creativity, from the first fully-animated feature film, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to 2019's Frozen 2, the biggest animated film of all time, to our 60th animated feature, Encanto, releasing November 2021. Among the studio's timeless creations are Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Frozen, Big Hero 6 and Zootopia.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-dym75q-18-188-44-223-42 in your application.