Sr. Software Engineer - Lighting & Render Pipeline
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 are looking for an engineer to join our Production Technology team, for tool development in our lighting and rendering pipeline. In this role, you will partner with artists, production and technology leadership, technical directors, cross-team software engineers, and other technologists and researchers across the Walt Disney Studios. You will be responsible for evolving a mature suite of tools to make performance and workflow improvements while maintaining a stable product. This will also include investigating, triaging and resolving issues reported by users.
Responsibilities :
Projects Include:
- Evolving, revising and supporting our rendering pipeline, a core system that produces the data consumed by our in-house renderer, connecting it with interactive authoring packages.
- Optimizing the processing of large data sets to improve artist iteration times and efficiently utilize the render farm.
- Gathering data to understand and improve performance and robustness of complex software systems.
- Leveraging technologies such as USD and redesigning our data representations to maximize benefit for practical production use.
- Improving interactive editing tools for artists, including design and development of new workflow solutions, using established DCCs such as Maya and Houdini.
What does it mean to be a developer here at WDAS?
- Our engineers get the opportunity to work on the full stack of our tools, from developing the underlying algorithms through 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.
Key Qualifications
- Proficiency in C++, ideally C++11/14, as well as Python.
- Extensive knowledge of optimization techniques, including multi-threading.
- The ability to quickly produce maintainable, robust, debuggable code.
- Excellent problem solving, troubleshooting and debugging skills.
- Ability to collaborate with team members across different disciplines, including directly interfacing with stakeholders to understand requirements.
- Exemplary communication, teamwork and problem solving skills.
- Able to prioritize competing demands based on business value.
- BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or related field
Bonus Qualifications
- Understanding of computer graphics foundational concepts and algorithms
- Knowledge of animation workflows and graphics techniques
- Strong mathematical fundamentals, including linear algebra and numerical methods
- Strong understanding of coding process, standards, continuous integration and testing principles
- Familiarity with USD or Hydra code bases.
- Maya or Houdini development experience.
- Experience building clean interfaces using common UI toolkits, especially Qt.