Pipeline TD - Lead

OUR STORY 
For more than 35 years, Bardel Entertainment has been growing and evolving, yet at our core, we remain grounded in the creative roots of the craft of animation. Our fearless pursuit of fresh ideas, techniques, and technologies is driven by the belief that together, through creativity and collaboration, we can accomplish anything! If you want to be part of a culture that embraces innovative ideas, techniques, and technologies without hesitation or fear of failure, come and join us. 

Reporting to the Head of Pipeline, the Pipeline Lead - Core is responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of the studio's internal pipeline library ecosystem, CI/CD infrastructure, and core services including the package management system. 
 
This role leads the Core Pipeline TD team, sets engineering standards for pipeline code across the studio, and bridges technical and creative departments to ensure stable, well-tested tools and scalable infrastructure across the studio’s pipeline. 

What you’ll be doing: 

Pipeline Development & Optimization 

• Lead the design and implementation of the studio’s internal pipeline library ecosystem, including libraries for environment resolution, path management, logging, farm submission/management, ShotGrid integration, etc. 

• Own package management strategy and tooling across the pipeline (Rez), including environment resolution, dependency management, and package distribution. 

• Collaborate with Systems & other pipeline teams to identify workflow bottlenecks & develop tailored solutions to support their work across Maya, Nuke, Houdini, Katana, and Blender 

• Ensure services, libraries, and tools are stable, well-documented, and follow coding standards set by the pipeline team. 

Team Leadership & Mentorship 

• Mentor and manage a team of pipeline developers and technical directors; providing code review, guidance, and support for their professional growth 

• Set and enforce engineering standards & architectural decisions across the team’s codebase 

• Foster cross-departmental collaboration to ensure alignment on technical and aesthetic goals  

Technical Oversight & Innovation 

• Provide technical leadership in areas such as Production tracking systems, Package management (Rez), Containerized web services (Docker, K8s, Flask, FastAPI), Python best practices, etc. 

• Own and evolve the studio’s Github Actions CI/CD system. 

• Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies to drive innovation and continuous improvement. 

• Research and evaluate emerging platform architectures. 

• Investigate and resolve DCC/render infrastructure issues spanning application crashes, environment configuration, and render node provisioning. 

Project & Release Management 

• Implement release scheduling policies and rollback plans to minimize disruption during major updates  

• Author recurring pipeline status updates covering farm stability, core library development, and other initiatives 

Documentation & Training 

• Create and maintain documentation and standards guides for internal libraries, CI/CD workflows, and coding conventions 

• Provide training and support to pipeline developers, TDs, TAs, and artists on internal tools, workflows, and best practices 

Cross-Departmental Integration 

• Act as a liaison between Production, Pipeline, Systems, and Desktop teams to ensure smooth coordination and communication  

• Support the integration of DCC applications & core services with broader studio infrastructure across Windows 10, 11, and Rocky 9 Linux environments 

What you’ll need: 

• 3+ years of experience in VFX, Animation, or Games pipeline development 

• Strong proficiency in Python, both OOP and functional, with experience designing internal libraries 

• Experience with package management systems (Rez or equivalent) 

• Experience with CI/CD systems (GitHub Actions or equivalent), source control, and automated testing/linting workflows 

• Experience with industry-standard DCC applications (Maya, Nuke, Houdini, Katana) & render farm management systems (Deadline). 

• Experience with production tracking systems (ShotGrid or equivalent) and their API integration 

• Excellent problem-solving, planning, and communication skills. 

• Proven track record of managing complex technical projects and leading cross-functional teams. 

Location: Candidates must be based in BC 

Pay Range: CAD $100,000 - $125,000 / year 

This salary range provided reflects our current expectations for these roles as of this posting’s date. Your final salary offer will consider various key factors, including your education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographical location, as well as the needs and requirements of the business. 

Flexible work environment, Extended Health and Wellness from day 1, RRSP matching are just some of the benefits. For more details, check out our website - https://bardel.ca/careers/  

If this seems like a good fit, what are you waiting for, get your application in!