Senior Pipeline Technical Director

Job Description

Senior Pipeline Technical Director (Project Hire)

Lucasfilm Animation and creators of the Emmy award-winning animation series ''Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' and the highly successful animation series ''Star Wars Rebels'' and ''Star Wars Resistance'' are looking for a Senior Pipeline Technical Director who reflects the innovative spirit, creative talent, and passion for great storytelling and filmmaking that define Lucasfilm Ltd.

Reporting to the Pipeline Supervisor while also working closely with the CG Supervisor, the Senior Pipeline Technical Director will oversee and maintain the operation and improvement of the animation department pipeline. This will require having a complete understanding of the entire pipeline in order to work independently with department supervisors to identify problem areas and develop solutions for workflows. You will be responsible for maintaining, designing, and developing workflow processes and tools that are necessary for collaboration with overseas studios as well as to support the internal shot production pipeline. You'll work closely with production to help prioritize and manage the development of tools across all departments. In addition, you will advise and collaborate with the Pipeline Supervisor in the training, tasking, and development of the Technical Assistants (TAs) and Associate Technical Directors (ATDs) within the department.

Responsibilities:
• Supervise the writing and maintaining of pipeline tools
• Work directly with department supervisors to identify problem areas in the pipeline
• Communicate progress and/or concerns re: pipeline development with production
• Design and develop production as well as artists tools to address problem areas in the pipeline
• Provide production support for released software solutions
• Implement, test, and release new tools to active shows with no production downtime
• Research and develop alternatives to outdated or deprecated technology
• Research new technology to suggest workflow improvements
• Attend ILM Technology meetings to keep up to date on their latest developments
• Identify how new tools requested from production will affect the rest of the pipeline
• Work with production to prioritize support and development tasks across multiple shows
• Advise Supervisors and Production leadership re: the technical needs of future shows
• Maintain and catalog documentation for the required tools of every department
• Provide guidance and oversight when TAs are supporting artists
• Provide guidance and oversight when ATDs are developing tools
• Collaborate with Pipeline Supervisor to advise in the tasking of TAs and ATDs
• Assist in the interviewing of potential candidates for roles within the department
• Special projects as needed that could include internal asset or shot production work

Basic Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical field or equivalent professional experience
• 3-5 years relevant experience
• Experience developing software and shipping to a production environment be it television/episodical, film, commercials, or games
• Strong Python scripting skill-set using standard python libraries
• Good knowledge of visual effects, feature animation or AAA game content pipelines
• Experience developing software tools for Autodesk Maya, Nuke, and/or Houdini, and RV, using Python packages such as PyQt and PySide
• Familiar with computer graphics interchange formats such as Alembic, FBX, USD and MaterialX and their role in a content pipeline
• Experience developing for augmented and virtual reality experiences and understanding of the constraints that performance dependent real-time experiences have on content creation techniques
• Development experience with the Unreal Engine or Unity and are comfortable utilizing 3D mathematics to solve problems (linear algebra, vector math)
• Experience developing software in Linux or Windows environments
• Holistic problem solver who understands art and digital asset production pipeline for film or games and strives for production efficiency
• Comfort with command line interfaces like BASH and TCSH
• Excellent communication and time management skills, able to work as part of a team
• Ability and willingness to communicate cross-discipline and provide innovative solutions to production pipeline problems
• A passion for animation, film, and/or real-time graphics
• Familiarity with general shot production workflow
• A good understanding of a typical animation pipeline from story through post
• Familiarity developing tools that interface with proprietary production database systems (MySQL, Postgres, Oracle or NoSQL equivalents)
• Familiarity shipping C/C software to production
• Familiarity with production tracking solutions like Shotgun or Ftrack

About Lucasfilm:

Lucasfilm is a global leader in film, television and digital entertainment production. In addition to its motion-picture and television production, the company's activities include visual effects, audio post-production and cutting-edge digital animation, interactive entertainment software, and the management of the global merchandising activities for its entertainment properties including the legendary STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES franchises. Lucasfilm Ltd. is headquartered in northern California.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with the following business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney's stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-ro1p04-3-144-252-153-42 in your application.