Pipeline Technical Director

Skydance · Santa Monica, Los Angeles · Posted 2026-07-14 · Full Time

Skydance offers a dynamic, inclusive, and ever-evolving culture where innovative ideas are welcomed, and growth fostered. The partnership between unique creativity and technological advancements are demonstrated within each pillar of the company. At the heart of it all is a commitment to boldly entertaining and relevant storytelling.

While all Animation studios look to hire people who are creative and hard-working, Skydance Animation is specifically looking for pioneers who seek to push the limits of what the world’s most collaborative art form can achieve, and to give those pioneers the space and the resources to build a new studio that’s doing something different.

If you’ve ever dreamt of what the early days of Hollywood must have been like, of what it takes to roll up your sleeves and break new ground, figure out a new process, and to one day say, “I was there when it all began,” then welcome aboard…

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As a Technical Director, you will have a deep involvement in designing and developing innovative tools to overcome specific challenges related to the department’s developments for our next animated feature film. This effort seeks to implement solutions that off-the-shelf software would not provide while maximizing productivity and meeting the high quality standard set by the company. The scope of the developments may be from a simple python script to a larger development involving complex algorithms.

Responsibilities

TDs are embedded within the productions to closely collaborate and support the artists and production management

Reports to the Production Technology Supervisor on the status of technical development projects, tool performance, production operations and support

Develop and maintain the required tools following the requirements supplied by the production departments and following the Production Engineering Team guides

Partner with Artists and other Engineers to iterate, debug, document, and refine tools and processes for feature film production

Acts as the ﬁrst line of support to solve day-to-day problems artists may encounter

Work on short-term needs, originated by shot challenges

Requirements

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, or comparable discipline and/or technical and creative knowledge gained through equivalent experience

Expert in Python

Experience programming with one or more of the following software: Maya, Houdini, and Nuke

Experience with Post and Preproduction workflows

Experience with one or more Non-linear editing suites: e.g. Avid Media Composer, Premiere, Resolve

Familiar with common media encodings and transcoding software: e.g. ffmpeg

Experience in Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems

Experience working with a source version control system (git)

Experience supporting pre-production departments such as Story, Editorial, and Previs

Experience with agile development and scrum methodology

User interaction design with a working knowledge of standard UI toolkits (e.g. Qt/PySide).

3+ years of experience preferred

Experience in computer animation, visual effects, or the game industry

Experience supporting animation pre-production departments such as Story, Editorial, and Previs

Experience with pipeline and plugin development in third party DCC tools

Experience with software development languages such as Java, Javascript, C++

Experience with other toolkits and systems such as Docker, Git, AWS

The compensation range for this non-exempt position in Los Angeles, CA is $53.00-62.50/hour. The rate offered may vary based on the candidate’s location, qualifications, experience and relevant expertise, among other factors. The range indicated is for base salary only and does not reflect the total compensation package, including bonus, benefits, etc.

#Animation

Skydance is a diversified media company founded by David Ellison in 2010 to create high quality, event-level entertainment for global audiences. The Company brings to life stories of immersive worlds across its feature film, television, interactive, and animation divisions.

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