Technical Director

Paramount Animation is the animated film division of Paramount Pictures. Building on Paramount's 100-year history of iconic filmmaking, Paramount Animation brings visionary artists and storytellers together to form a world-class animation studio.

Position Summary

We are actively seeking an experienced and enthusiastic Technical Director (TD) to provide daily support to artists, show management, and department heads and to further develop a range of production based workflows for our production teams

The TD is responsible for developing, designing, and implementing pipeline tools and workflows used throughout the creative process by artists and production management. This person will provide front-line pipeline support and must be able to quickly and effectively troubleshoot general CG animation pipeline issues while operating in a fast-paced production environment. This person will be supporting artists and production crew in the Editorial, Story, Art/Design, and 3D Story/Previs/Layout departments within and across multiple productions.

The TD will serve as a curator of production needs and requests.  The TD in this role will work closely with the other TDs and production to provide production based solutions for each of the departments listed above based on their list of priorities.

A successful candidate is self-motivated, proactive, quick-thinking, flexible, thorough, and able to juggle multiple and diverse responsibilities with a strong emphasis on organization and attention to detail. This is a position that requires someone who is excellent at communicating technical concepts to non technical users. 

Responsibilities

• Communicate with artists to identify production facing problems.
• Provide immediate support to artists in troubleshooting assets and/or shots and publishing data to editorial.
• Gather requirements and input from artists and technology stakeholders to engineer robust and thoughtful software solutions
• Provide ShotGrid support and workflow enhancements for production teams.
• Provide insight and recommendations to the TDs and Production about ShotGrid best practices and optimized workflows.
• Create integrations for third-party and proprietary tools and applications.
• Provide front-line support for pipeline-related issues across all pre-production departments.
• Write and maintain tool and workflow documentation and training
• Work closely with Vendors, who are key contributors in making our high-quality films.
• Assist other TDs, artists, VFX & CG Supervisors, and Pipeline developers to extend and enhance the production pipeline.
• Construct validation tests to ensure software quality.
• Apply analytics to monitor the operations of the studio and streamline operations.
• Assist in training and mentoring of interns and contractors.

Basic Qualifications

• A minimum of 2+ years' experience developing ShotGrid-based tools/workflows in a production environment (or equivalent education)
• Advanced knowledge of ShotGrid, ShotGrid Toolkit, Maya, Photoshop, RV, Rez, Git, Jira, and Linux, Windows and MacOS platforms preferred
• Experience supporting pre-production workflows, such as Editorial, Story, Design, Previz, and Virtual Production preferred
• Undergraduate or graduate degree in Computer Science, Computer/Electrical Engineering, Computer Graphics, or related field
• Expert knowledge of Python and object-oriented programming practices
• Thorough understanding of current industry techniques and technologies
• Experience developing robust user interfaces using PySide / Qt
• Excellent problem-solving skills
• Exceptional verbal, written, e-social and interpersonal communication skills
• Proven ability to organize and present technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Highly organized, efficient, and detail-oriented
• Excellent communications skills and comfortable speaking to different groups

Additional Qualifications

• Production experience in Computer Animation, Visual Effects, or Game Industry
• Proficiency in C++, MEL, Interface Design, Qt, Jira, Git, and Javascript. 
• Familiarity with animation tools, such as Maya, Nuke, Houdini, SyncSketch, Harmony, AVID, OCIO, OTIO, FLIX, and Storybook Pro.
• Interest in learning and applying machine learning tools.
• During our adoption of USD, provide insight into best practices, traps to avoid, and successful workflows based on prior experience (if applicable).
• Experience or interest in learning Unreal, Blender, and other virtual production tools and software.

Hiring Salary Range:
Minimum: $2300/45hr week ($48.43/hour)
Maximim: $3100/45hr week ($65.27/hour)
*Weekly rates are guaranteed and include one hour of OT at time and a half into each day.The hiring salary range for this position applies to New York City, California, Colorado, Washington state, and most other geographies. Starting pay for the successful applicant depends on a variety of job-related factors, including but not limited to geographic location, market demands, experience, training, and education.