Software Engineer - Tools

Position: Software Engineer - Tools

Hiring Range: $109,200 to $125,000/year for a 40 hour work week

Project Contract: To Be Confirmed

Company Benefits: Extended healthcare from day 1, premiums 100% covered by Image Engine, up to 8 paid Health and Wellness days per year.

Candidates are required to be based in British Columbia and eligible to work in Canada.

ABOUT IMAGE ENGINE

Image Engine is a world-class VFX studio based in Vancouver, BC, that has built a reputation for excellence in the visual effects industry since 1995. We specialize in crafting stunning visual effects for feature films and television with an award-winning portfolio that includes The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, Game Of Thrones, Lost in Space, Jurassic World, and District 9.

We offer a full range of visual effects services, from concept designs and pre-visualization to CG animation, compositing, and explosive volumetric digital effects. Our crew is passionate about storytelling and pushing the artistic and technical boundaries to deliver the highest quality work on every project. R&D is central to our philosophy of driving creativity through innovation and we're committed to continually evolving our robust production pipelines.

At Image Engine, we value diversity and teamwork, and we're proud to foster a workplace culture that is supportive, respectful, and empowering. We believe that our success is a reflection of our exceptionally talented team, and we're always looking for passionate and dedicated individuals to join us on our mission to create unforgettable visual experiences. Join our team and be part of something extraordinary.

POSITION PURPOSE

Your position as a Software Engineer is vital to Image Engine. Your intuition and experience in fast paced production environments empowers you to build tools and interfaces that serve creatively driven artist workflows across a variety of VFX departments.
Reporting to the Software Engineering Supervisor, you will design and develop artist facing tools for data visualization, manipulation, publishing, and rendering of hugely complex 3D and 2D scenes. Common tasks will span DCC application development, asset management, and UI/UX design. You may also be asked to dive deep into particular fields, teaming with subject area Engineers or TDs.
Projects may include designing interfaces that improve efficiency in specific departments, integrating new technologies into the pipeline, or optimizing and simplifying complex networks of distributed batch processes.
Your passion, talent, and ideas will help us bring VFX at Image Engine to the next level of efficiency and performance.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design UIs and APIs for authoring, publishing, and tracking data throughout our content generation pipelines.
• Design, implement, and support a mixture of proprietary, open-source, and third-party software.
• Collaborate with artists, technical directors, and supervisors to determine the studio’s needs for current and future productions.
• Identify and optimize bottlenecks in algorithms and workflows throughout the pipeline.
• Contribute to Image Engine's open source initiatives: Cortex and Gaffer.
• Design and implement solutions targeting current production workflows, while ensuring they can be generalized for all productions when possible.
• Document, test, and debug tools to ensure they meet production requirements.
• Write clear documentation for tools, scripts, and plug-ins.
• Provide secondary technical support, training, and tutorials to Artists, TDs, and Production Staff.
• Stay up-to-date with industry trends for content generation, asset management, and workflow automation.
  

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• A university degree in Computer Science, Math, Physics, Engineering, or a related field.
• 3 or more years experience developing software in a VFX, Animation, or Games production environment, or a postgraduate degree (MSc, PhD) with a strong focus on Computer Graphics.
• A Master's or PhD in Computer Science or a related field is an asset.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Technical skills

• Solid understanding of production workflows and the artist mindset when interacting with proprietary tools and interfaces.
• Experience writing software in Python and C++.
• Experience developing for Maya, Nuke, Houdini, Gaffer or Katana in Python.
• Experience developing for Maya, Nuke, Houdini, Gaffer or Katana in C++.
• Experience designing and developing Asset Management systems.

• Demonstrable knowledge of high-end DCC applications and APIs.

• Experience with modern VFX data formats and APIs like Alembic, USD, or VDB.
• Familiarity with our open source efforts (Cortex or Gaffer) is an asset.
• Experience developing in a Linux environment.

Core skills

• Team oriented with good communication skills, able to work closely with artists.
• Preference for a structured work environment, with clearly outlined priorities.
• Expectation of upfront planning before proceeding with final implementation.
• Proactive with proven ability to work both independently and in a team.
• Ability to take direction and feedback from a supervisor or a peer.
• Excellent time management and communication skills.
• Ability to monitor and identify potential inefficiencies with production workflows.
• Excellent troubleshooting and debugging skills.
• Ability to adapt quickly to new technologies and applications.
• Willingness to extend beyond your current specializations to help a larger engineering effort when required.