Render Technical Director

Flying Bark; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work days

Health insurance discounts

Wellbeing programs

Breakfast provided

Job summary

Flying Bark Productions in Sydney, Australia, is seeking a Render Technical Director to bridge lighting, surfacing and FX with our render pipeline. You will audit, profile, and optimize high-density scenes to maximize image quality while reducing compute cost.

The ideal candidate has 6 years in feature animation or VFX as a Render/Pipeline TD, deep knowledge of Renderman, Arnold or Karma, and strong skills in Katana, Nuke, Python and Lua.

Qualifications

• Six years of feature animation or visual effects experience as a Render TD, Lighting TD, or Pipeline TD.
• Strong knowledge of modern production ray-tracers (RenderMan, Arnold, Karma).
• Proficiency with Katana and Nuke; solid understanding of scene graphs.
• Experience reading render logs, memory profiling, and debugging.

Responsibilities

• Audit and optimize high-density production scenes to balance image quality with compute cost.
• Diagnose and resolve render failures across Surfacing, FX and Lighting.
• Tune sampling, ray depths, and light thresholds for asset/sequence needs.
• Profile CPU, I/O bandwidth, and memory to identify bottlenecks.
• Develop and maintain internal tools and automated denoising/workflows.
• Write/modify shaders (OSL/C++) for specialized production needs.

Skills

Render optimization

Ray tracing

Python scripting

Lua scripting

Katana

Nuke

RenderMan

Arnold

Karma

Profiling & debugging

Shader development (OSL/C++)

Memory optimization

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/CG/Physics/Math

Tools

Pixar Tractor

OSL

C++

Job description

Flying Bark Productions is a dynamic and innovative animation studio dedicated to pushing the boundaries of character animation and storytelling. We have a number of exciting productions underway, including a new 2D project with Disney, Netflix's Ghostbusters animated series and Stranger Things animated series, as well as an upcoming feature film, Zac Power.

We are seeking a Render Technical Director (Render TD) to serve as the bridge between creative departments (Lighting, Surfacing, FX) and our render infrastructure. In this role, you will audit, profile, and optimize high-density production scenes to maximize image quality while minimizing compute cost.

You will diagnose complex frame failures, fine-tune samplings, and collaborate with technical leads and creatives to balance production quality and render efficiency.

Key Responsibilities:

• Scene & Asset Auditing : Inspect high-density production scenes to verify geometry (subdivisions, instancing), textures (tiled/mipmapped formats, memory footprint), shading networks, and scene graph traversal efficiency before farm dispatch.
• Troubleshooting & Technical Support : Serve as the frontline defense for diagnosing and resolving complex render failures across Surfacing, FX, and Lighting—including shading errors, memory limits/crashes, render locks, and visual artifacts (e.g., fireflies, temporal noise, aliasing).
• Optimization & Sampling Fine-Tuning : Analyze shot setups and adjust sampling, ray depths, and light thresholds tailored to specific asset, sets and sequences, to achieve target frame budgets.
• Performance Profiling & Systems Diagnostics : Profile scenes for CPU resource utilization, I/O bandwidth, and memory consumption. Utilize engine logs, diagnostics, and profilers to isolate performance bottlenecks.
• Tool Development & Automation : Build, refine, and maintain internal department tools and scripts using Python and Lua to streamline render pass setups, custom AOVs, secondary outputs, and automated denoising workflows.
• Ray Tracing & Shading Customization (Good to have): Leverage a deep understanding of light transport, sampling distributions, and ray-tracing algorithms to write or modify custom shaders (OSL, C++) and manipulate ray behavior for specialized production needs.

Technical Qualifications & Experience

Production Experience : 6 years of experience in feature animation or visual effects acting as a Render TD, Lighting TD, or Pipeline TD.

Core Render Engines: Deep operational knowledge of modern production ray-tracers (e.g. Renderman, Arnold or Karma).

Software Suite: Proficiency in DCC platforms including Katana and Nuke. Strong familiarity with scene graph structures.

Profiling & Debugging: Hands-on experience reading render logs, identifying memory leaks/spikes, or debuggers (Native DCC engine profilers).

Underlying Fundamentals: Solid foundation in computer graphics principles—including Monte Carlo sampling, BVH acceleration, color management (ACES/OCIO), and system resource limits (RAM/VRAM/IOPS).

Bonus / Desired Skills:

• Experience with volumetric shaders, or utility nodes in OSL or C++.
• Familiarity with queue management platforms such as Pixar Tractor.
• Academic background in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, Physics, or Mathematics.

What do we do?

Flying Bark Productions is a renowned independent producer of family-focused animation entertainment. For over 50 years, our 2D and 3D production facility hascreated award-winning feature films and TV series.

Why work with us?

• We work on some pretty cool projects - check out our website:
• https://www.flyingbark.com.au/
• We have an industry leading studio space in Alexandria, complete with a cinema, quiet room, Zen Garden, games room, and state of the art animation facilities.
• We have cake days, movie nights, wrap parties & a culture club dedicated to coordinating our busy social calendar!
• The Barkers have big hearts too, with our Paws for a Cause fundraising arm raising much needed funds for charities such as Beyond Blue, RSPCA and the Cancer Council.
• We love dogs and you will often see some of our regular fluff verte companions in the studio.
• Career development is important to us so we offer training and support opportunities whenever possible.
• Our employees say our culture is the best they've ever experienced - everyone is welcome and celebrated!
• You'll have access to mental health resources and free counselling via our Employee Assistance Provider, Support Act.

Perks & Benefits:

• We have a hybrid approach to work with flexible work from home days on offer.
• Enjoy holistic wellbeing support through discounted health insurance with Bupa, financial wellbeing initiatives from our superannuation partner Media Super, and access to staff qualified in Mental Health First Aid.
• Breakfast is served daily - on us!
• Flare Benefits Platform:
• Access to exclusive discounts, cashback, and premium deals at hundreds of major Australian retailers to help your pay go further.
• Health Insurance Discounts:
• Compare and save on private health cover with potential savings of up to $300.
• Novated Leasing (Flare Cars):
• Eligible employees can save an average of $10,000/year on car ownership through novated leasing.*
• *Available to permanent employees and fixed-term contractors on contracts of 12 months or more.

Flying Bark Productions is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.