Technical Assistant

Position Summary

Technical Assistants (TAs) are primarily responsible for managing compute and storage production resources. They work very closely with artists, production, and other technical staff to ensure resources are allocated appropriately and used in the most efficient manner possible. By working closely with production TAs are afforded the opportunity to learn the artistic workflows, pipelines and tools first-hand.

This is the studio’s main entry-level position which feeds into other technical and artistic positions. It offers a great chance to get in on the ground floor of an exciting career in computer graphics and animation for major Hollywood feature films.

Primary Responsibilities

• Works with the CG Supervisors, Assistant Technical Directors, and Production Engineering Team to ensure shows follow proper data management procedures.
• Prioritizes overnight renders on both Linux and Windows render farm. Coordinates processor allocations with Production. Balances processor demands within show, between shows, and as a share of facility pool. Monitors processor and file server utilization and health of jobs in the farm throughout the day and overnight. Identifies problem shots and works with artists to fix issues.
• Monitors disk usage for the facility, with a particular focus on individual shows, and on a shot-by-shot basis within those shows. Coordinates show storage needs on a long-term basis with Resource manager. Coordinates and executes the finaling process for shots and shows.
• Prioritizes, manages, and maintains archive of show data, including creation of archival backups for shows, maintenance of archive database, storage and retrieval of physical media for recent show archives. Fulfills all data restoration requests, including archival research to locate requested data.
• Manage reference materials through our internal image library system. This includes uploading/removing of images and provide assistance when users encounter issues with the system.
• Handle any data management requests such as file transfer, image conversion, archive/restore, and data removal.
• Responsible for maintaining and updating department software as a team. Works closely with our Production Engineering team to ensure that code is clean and well maintained.

Education / Experience

• Diploma or Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent.

Required Skills / Competencies

• Proven ability and experience working well on teams.
• Aesthetic eye and/or artistic background highly desired.
• Knowledge of, and experience with, 3D modeling/animation software (i.e. Maya) highly desired.
• Proven knowledge of and experience with UNIX/Linux & Windows operating systems.
• Strong scripting language (i.e. Python, Perl) and programming language (i.e. C/C++, Java) preferred.
• Database knowledge preferred (i.e. Oracle).
• Familiarity with film and video post-production and/or computer graphics techniques highly desired.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills required. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively interact with diverse personalities.
• Strong time management skills; Ability to multi-task and prioritize.
• Proven ability to work autonomously and in team settings.
• Highly motivated.
• Ability to work shift hours as required.