Senior Software Engineer - Media Management Tools [Contract]

At Walt Disney Animation Studios we have a deep commitment to the philosophy that creativity inspires technology, and technology inspires creativity. Engineers in our Production Technology department are charged with developing and implementing new algorithms to solve unique and challenging problems for all of our animated content. We do this working alongside a user base that shares a collaborative environment with us, and uses the code we develop daily.

We are looking for an engineer to join our Production Technology team, developing user-facing tools and back-end solutions for media management and video playback applications.

In this role, you will partner with artists, production and technology leadership, technical directors, cross-team software engineers, and other technologists and researchers across the Walt Disney Studios.You will be supporting the creation and maintenance of our playback and review tools, which are a critical part of our creative process. This is a highly collaborative role as you will be interfacing directly with your user base, and implementing groundbreaking features that will elevate the way we review and create animated content.

This is a 12 month, fixed-term contract position.

Projects Include

• Develop and extend the API of dpix, our proprietary media management application.

• Improve and create new customizations of RV, Autodesk’s Playback App, which includes: Advanced Color Pipeline, real-time synced reviews between desktop and mobile devices with highly-latent connections, and visual draw-over feedback

What does it mean to be a developer at Walt Disney Animation Studios?

• Our engineers get the opportunity to work on the full stack of our tools, from developing the underlying algorithms through building intuitive artist-friendly interfaces.

• Work hand in hand with artists and a team of cross-site developers to make the tools we need for the incredibly complex characters/environments featured in our content.

• Develop on top of a highly performant, extendable in-house application framework.

• Develop new artist-centric interaction models using the latest hardware and technologies.

You will succeed in this role if you have:

• The ability to produce readable and testable code, with excellent problem solving, troubleshooting, and debugging skills

• Excellent collaboration skills, including with end users, providing guidance and coordinating feedback

• Ability to collaborate with team members across different disciplines

• You care deeply about craftsmanship in your software, and can work backwards from the customer experience.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Key Qualifications:

• 5+ years designing and developing complex user-facing software, ideally in a studio environment 

• Proficiency in Python

• Proficiency developing back-end data management solutions utilizing SQL and/or NoSQL databases

Bonus Qualifications:

• An understanding of Studio production processes and workflows used in filmmaking

• Familiarity with  OpenColorIO, OpenImageIO, and/or OpenTimelineIO

Required Education

• BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or equivalent experience.

The hiring range for this position in British Columbia, Canada is C$130,000 to C$157,000 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. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other variable pay or benefits, may be offered dependent on the level and position offered.