Software Engineer, Characters & Crowds (Applications)

Pixar is seeking skilled and enthusiastic engineers to join us in advancing the state of the art in computer animation. We develop and maintain our proprietary and powerful Presto Animation System as well as the industry-defining Universal Scene Description, OpenSubdiv, and Hydra projects for integrating with and extending premier applications such as Maya and Houdini. Pixar is an exciting and dynamic environment for adaptable and motivated individuals, with several concurrent movies and streaming projects all using our latest efforts to push the technical and artistic boundaries of storytelling. If you’re passionate about crafting world-class software and working with exceptional artists and engineers, we want to talk to you!
This opportunity is to join the Characters and Crowds team in the Software Research & Development department, responsible for the tools used to build, articulate, and pose our digital actors. This includes algorithms for high-performance geometry deformation and graphical visualization, the UX used by the artists to author and control these behaviors, and pipeline tools to enable efficient collaboration and information transfer between departments and applications. Our team works directly with artists possessing a spectrum of technical experience, and the role requires initiative and communication skills for identifying and characterizing issues they encounter, along with the engineering skills to debug and resolve them in a large and complex code base. The work is a mix of supporting existing features and collaborating with project management and technical leadership to propose, plan, implement, and deploy new capabilities. Projects range from self-directed individual efforts to large departmental or studio initiatives involving the combined efforts of several technical teams.

REQUIREMENTS:

• A desire to work closely with users in a creative environment

• Familiarity with graphics concepts such as subdivision, tessellation, mesh topology, bounding hierarchies, and parametric deformation

• Familiarity with geometric operations such as basis evaluation, surface / curve parameterization, and projection

• Strong problem-solving and verbal and written communication skills with a high attention to detail

• Demonstrable proficiency in C++ with at least 3 years of relevant professional experience

• An appreciation for the importance of long-term code health, peer review, automated testing, and documentation

• The ability to balance rapid delivery of critical solutions with long-term product quality

• Able to work hybrid model

ADVANTAGEOUS SKILLS:

• Fluency with the practical concerns of programming high-performance software

• Experience with multithreaded and GPU programming

• Experience with USD, OpenSubdiv, or Hydra

• Development experience with 3D content creation applications (e.g. Maya, Houdini)

• Familiarity with Python as a scripting language

• Experience developing in a UNIX / Linux environment

The hiring range for this position in Emeryville is $160,565.00 to $207,790.00 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors.

Pixar is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We know our storytelling is at its best when we include, celebrate and embrace difference. We strive to be a diverse workforce that is representative of our audiences, and where all can thrive and belong. We are committed to building a team that includes and respects a variety of voices, identities, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. Pixar participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. | Follow us on X @PixarRecruiting.