Technical Director PaFX (Houdini) - Netflix Animation Studios

Netflix Animation Studios is on a mission to entertain the world with bold, immersive animated films that are timeless and impactful. We are paving the way for the future of animation by building a community of amazing artists and talent across three vibrant locations globally. Come join us!

Job Summary:

The Procedural Asset and FX Technical Director is a Houdini TD responsible for supporting all teams that use Sidefx Houdini. They work with the front-end assets team, such as Surfacing and Modelling, and also back end shot-based teams: Fx, Character-fx, Crowds, and Matte Painting.

They assist creative and visual objectives through pipeline troubleshooting, user support, technical direction, and tool development. The TD will participate in the development of artist workflows and tools for projects and debug problematic workflow steps to support global studio productions in that area. The TD will work closely with their craft groups and show leadership, the Solutions Engineering and R&D teams to enable high-quality technical outcomes and a standardized approach.

What You’ll Do:

• Provide technical expertise and guidance for Houdini and USD technology for the departments they support.

• Understand the visual requirements for productions and propose new technologies, or design procedures, techniques, and tools to ensure those needs are met.

• Provide technical expertise and guidance for technology within the PAFX department.

• Participate in or lead the direction, evolution & maintenance of technology within the PAFX department.

• Design, develop, review and write well-maintainable, production level and consistently high-quality code.

• Track, debug, and resolve workflow issues in partnership with technical supervisors, associate technical supervisors, solutions engineers, and R&D.

• Work closely with other TD’s on the team to drive the technical success of key development initiatives.

• Communicate clearly, via instant messaging systems like Slack, to proactively report on issues that may affect others, provide updates on software releases, and offer assistance to other team members.

• Ensure that technology, tools, and procedures support the creative process.

• Provide solutions to visual problems through existing tools or by leading the implementation of new tools.

• Take responsibility for the troubleshooting & optimization of the tools, software, and workflows of the PAFX department.

• Actively participate in or drive QA, technical testing, and validation of new technology, tool releases, or pipeline changes such that artist workflow is not impacted.

• Understand the processes of adjoining departments and provide input where required to maximize pipeline efficiency and quality.

• Actively participate in brainstorming and problem-solving, contributing technical expertise and insight, to create and maintain technology within the canonical production pipeline.

• Support the organization's overall technical goals as required.

• Demonstrate excellent communication skills, including the ability to clearly present work to stakeholders, actively gather feedback, and incorporate it into technical solutions.

• Be aware of the deadlines for development initiatives and actively engage in keeping these on track.

• Continuously monitor the scope of development initiatives and help to ensure scope adjustments have additional estimates, etc.

• Prioritize and break down technical projects into organized parts and describe them in Jira

• Provide technical guidance to other TDs and TAs, where appropriate, with day-to-day issues and escalation through the right channels when necessary.

• Mentor junior team members and assist in orientation with new starters.

• Create synergies between different work groups to promote efficiency and optimization and to generate innovative ideas and approaches to how we do things

What You’ll Need:

Experience:

• 5+ years of proven pipeline TD experience in large-scale animated features, animated TV series, the gaming industry, and/or VFX feature films.

• Solid production/industry experience as a TD, ideally as part of a team.

Skills/Knowledge:

• Comprehensive Houdini experience with using and troubleshooting procedural node-based workflows.

• A strong understanding of USD and its general concepts, including Houdini’s Solaris/LOP context.

• Proven ability to design and build production-ready Houdini Digital Assets (HDAs) to simplify artist workflows and abstract complex operations.

• An understanding of traditional techniques appropriate to Assets (Surfacing, hair and feather grooming, lookdev, procedural vegetation, or environment modelling)

• Good knowledge of shot-based simulation craft groups such as FX, Character-FX, Crowd and Matte-Painting and appropriate techniques they may use.

• Expertise in configuring and customizing the Houdini environment for production use.

• Practical experience in developing custom user interfaces using Python (PySide/PyQt).

• Knowledge of version control software such as git, as well as the ability to code review and troubleshoot problems as they arise in GitHub.

• Knowledge in Python as well as PyQt or another GUI toolkit.

• Knowledge of concepts like data flow, data dependencies, metadata, publishing, and retrieval.

• Knowledge of Flow Production Tracking (Shotgrid).

• Knowledge of software development practices such as Agile and how to apply them in software such as Jira.

• Degree in Animation, Film, Computer Science, Design, Engineering, Math or Physics, or equivalent combination of education & work experience in animation/VFX.

• Knowledge of other DCCs such as Maya, Nuke and/or similar software in the animation domain is a plus.

• A basic understanding of C++ is a plus.

This role is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Hybrid Role (Minimum requirement of 3 days a week in the office).

At NAS, we carefully consider a wide range of compensation factors to determine your compensation. We rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, location, skills, and experience. The overall market range for this role is typically $120,000 - $180,000 This reflects total compensation; we do not have bonuses.

NAS benefits can include medical/dental/vision plans, mental health support, retirement programs, and family-forming benefits, paid leave of absence programs, and paid time away programs to be used for vacation and sick paid time off. See more detail about our benefits here.

Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.