Senior Pipeline TD
As a Senior Pipeline Technical Director, you play a critical role in designing, maintaining, and evolving the studio's production pipeline. With a deep understanding of how data and workflows move across departments, you identify inefficiencies, develop scalable solutions, and ensure the pipeline supports both creative and production goals.
Working closely with Artists, Supervisors, Production, and IT, you will lead technical initiatives, contribute to long-term pipeline strategy, and help maintain a stable, efficient, and forward-thinking production environment. This role requires strong problem-solving skills, technical leadership, and the ability to balance innovation with production stability.
Responsibilities:
- Design, develop, and maintain pipeline tools and workflows to support production efficiency and scalability.
- Analyze and troubleshoot pipeline issues, implementing solutions that minimize disruption to production.
- Evaluate production requests and technical issues, prioritizing and delivering effective solutions.
- Collaborate with Artists, Supervisors, Production, and IT to align pipeline functionality with production needs.
- Identify opportunities for workflow improvements and propose systemic changes to enhance efficiency.
- Contribute to long-term pipeline strategy, including research and implementation of new technologies.
- Write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code following established development standards.
- Participate in code reviews, ensuring quality, consistency, and adherence to best practices.
- Mentor and support junior and intermediate Pipeline TDs.
- Maintain and improve documentation for tools, workflows, and systems.
- Coordinate with IT to deploy and maintain third-party tools and integrations.
- Monitor pipeline health and proactively address potential risks or bottlenecks.
- Communicate progress, risks, and updates clearly to Pipeline leadership and stakeholders.
- Participate in production and departmental meetings to stay aligned with project needs.
Qualifications:
- At least 5+ years of experience working in a technical or pipeline role in the animation, VFX, or gaming industry, with at least 3+ years in a senior or lead capacity.
- Strong proficiency in Python, with experience writing clean, scalable, and maintainable code.
- Deep understanding of animation and/or VFX pipelines, including data flow across departments.
- Proven experience developing pipeline tools and improving production workflows.
- Solid understanding of software development principles, including design patterns and SOLID practices.
- Experience with version control systems (e.g., Git) and collaborative development workflows.
- Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills in complex production environments.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work across technical and non-technical teams.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and work independently in a fast-paced production setting.
- Experience mentoring or guiding other developers or technical artists.
Desirable Skills:
- Nice to Have / Beneficial Experience
- Degree in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, or a related field.
- Experience with databases, APIs, or web-based tools.
- Familiarity with Qt/PySide/PyQt for UI development.
- Experience with DCC applications (e.g., Maya, Houdini, Nuke, ZBrush, Mari).
- Knowledge of Maya APIs (MEL, PyMEL, Python API).
- Experience with production tracking tools (e.g., ShotGrid/Shotgun) and issue tracking systems.
- Familiarity with render farm management tools (e.g., Deadline).
- Experience with file formats such as USD or Alembic.
- Exposure to additional programming languages (e.g., C++, Java).
The wage range for this role reflects compensation across all of ICON's projects. The final salary will be determined based on the specific position, the current show assignment, and the applicant's experience and portfolio. This range accounts for varying levels of experience and responsibilities.
In compliance with British Columbia provincial mandates, we are posting this broad wage range to meet wage transparency requirements.
