R&D Engineers (All Levels) - ILM London

Position Summary

We are seeking talented R&D engineers at all levels to join our innovative and collaborative R&D team.

Who We Are:

Industrial Light & Magic, founded in 1975 by George Lucas, has created some of the most iconic moments in motion picture history. From Star Wars to Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, The Avengers, theme park rides and interactive experiences, ILM continues to expand the possibilities of what visual entertainment can be.

ILM’s Research and Development (R&D) group develops the ground-breaking technology that empowers our artists to create dazzling visuals.  ILM’s innovations have won 34 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards®. Today, we are 70+ visually-minded software engineers, working side-by-side with over a thousand digital artists in a fast-paced, intensely collaborative, creative film production environment, across studios in San Francisco, Vancouver, London, Sydney, and Mumbai.

At ILM, a good idea is a good idea, regardless of where it comes from! Do you thrive in a creative environment? Do you enjoy sharing knowledge and learning from others? If you love art, technology, and movies, then this might be the role you’re looking for!

Responsibilities include:

• Developing tools and production techniques across all areas of visual effects and feature animation production.

• Developing innovative algorithms, crafting artist-friendly user interfaces, optimising data management processes, and building special purpose content creation tools that handle large-scale photo-realistic visual effects production. 

• Working with engineers across all ILM’s studios, splitting time between long-term software development projects and day-to-day artist support, consultation, and problem-solving.

• Collaborating with commercial software vendors in developing and deploying the next generation of machine-learning-based tools wherever applicable.

• Occasional shot work alongside artists

• Image processing, compositing, and rotoscoping, including depth estimation, image segmentation, generative in-painting, and plate relighting.

• Simulating natural phenomena, rigid-body destruction, crowds and procedural animation.

• Lighting, texturing, look-development, and layered material definition.

• Modeling, rigging, and animation of bodies and faces, including soft-body dynamic simulation of cloth, hair, and flesh.

• Tools, structures, and pipeline systems that define how artists assemble and manage massively complex 3D scenes, and user interfaces for authoring, validating, publishing, and tracking 3D and 2D data as it moves through a network of automated batch processes.

• Senior level roles will have people and\or project leadership responsibilities.

We welcome engineers with a passion for applying the latest machine learning technology to these challenges and more!

What to Bring:

• Proven experience relevant to the level of role with professional software development and/or VFX production.

• Proficiency in C++ and Python on Linux.

• Knowledge of and/or a desire to expand your expertise in the principles of visual effects, potentially with a specialty such as modeling, animation, lighting, rendering, image processing, etc.

• Experience with Maya, Houdini, Katana, Mari or other commercial software applications is preferred, otherwise  the ability to demonstrate a proactive learning attitude to support knowledge and\or skills ability.Experience with machine learning techniques, processes, and toolsets.

• Working knowledge of standard data formats: OpenEXR, OpenVDB, Alembic, USD, etc. 

• A passion for designing artist-friendly interfaces using GUI toolkits: Qt, PySide, QML, etc.  You don’t need to be a professional UX designer, but you should have a keen sense for how creative people use technology to work together in production.

• An understanding of software development principles: object-oriented design, test-driven development, source code management, build and release processes. 

• Extensive experience developing in at least one of the above listed niches. 

• Applicable to Senior level positions: Leadership and mentoring experience is required.

Education / Experience:

• BS and/or advanced degree in computer science or related field, or equivalent  level of experience.

This role is Hybrid, which means the employee will be required to work a minimum of 2 days on-site per week at a Company designated location, and occasionally from home.

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