Technical Assistant I

The Technical Assistant I (TA) provides front line rendering and data management support for ILM VFX Production teams and the facility. TAs also manage storage by wrangling data through archiving, removing data and following resource management best practices. The TA team ensures full utilization of the render farm during their shift and communicates as technical issues affecting the throughput the farm arise.

This role is considered Hybrid, which means the employee will work 2-3 days onsite at our San Francisco, Presidio office and occasionally from home.

What You’ll Do

• Prioritize overnight renders; coordinate processor allocations with Core Pipeline & Show Production teams; balance processor demands within show, between shows, and as a share of facility pool
• Report issues with frames post render to the digital artists and CG Supervisors and work to find a solution
• Work to ensure full resource utilization during the night. Manipulate priorities to ensure that renders are completed by next business day. Report any machine problems or general issues that hinder the completion of renders to the appropriate department
• Monitor disk usage for the facility, with a particular focus on individual shows, and on a shot-by-shot basis within those shows. Coordinate show storage needs on a long-term basis with Digital Resource Manager
• Work with the Digital Resource Manager, CG Supervisors and Core Pipeline team to ensure show follows proper data management procedures
• Prioritize, manage, and maintain archives of show data, including creation of archival backups for shows, maintenance of archive databases, storage and retrieval of physical media for recent show archives. Fulfill all data restoration requests, including archival research to locate requested data
• Maintain and update department tools. Work closely with Core Pipeline to ensure that code is clean and well maintained
• Participate in development projects; write production and pipeline scripts as required to assist ongoing technology efforts

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Film Production or equivalent degree
• 1+ years relevant work experience
• Proven knowledge of and experience with Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems
• 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
• Aesthetic eye and/or artistic background highly desired
• Familiarity with film and video post-production and/or computer graphics techniques highly desired
• Proven ability to work autonomously and in team settings
• Self-motivated
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Ability to adapt to a high pressure, fast-paced, dynamic environment
• Ability to work shift hours as required, including evenings and weekends
• Nice to have:
• Strong scripting language (e.g. Python, Shell) is highly desired
• Knowledge of, and experience with, 3D animation software (e.g. Maya, Katana) is highly desired
• Database knowledge preferred (e.g. Oracle, Redis, MongoDB, Cassandra)
• Knowledge of networking, tape backup systems, hardware a plus
• VFX, Feature Animation or Episodic production experience a plus