Hiring Crowd TD at Stellar Creative Lab, Canada 2026

Festybay; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 93,000 - 103,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible Hybrid Environment

Comprehensive Health Benefits

Continuous Professional Growth

Unmatched Studio Culture

Job summary

Stellar Creative Lab in Vancouver, BC is seeking a Crowd Technical Director (Crowd TD) for a premium Marvel Animation streaming series. This hybrid, full-time role focuses on building and maintaining crowd pipelines and tools using Maya, Houdini, Python, and Atoms Crowd.

You will lead pipeline design, prototyping, tool development, and cross‑department collaboration with Asset, FX, and Animation teams, ensuring scalable workflows and robust solutions that keep artists productive and stress-free.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional crowd pipeline experience in VFX/animation.
• Expert-level Python scripting and Maya technical knowledge.
• Experience with Atoms Crowd and crowd simulation tools.
• Eligibility to work in British Columbia, Canada.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain a scalable crowd pipeline using Maya, Houdini, and Atoms Crowd.
• Prototype and test shot pipelines to identify bottlenecks before artists work on them.
• Develop and maintain custom tools to expand crowd team capabilities and throughput.
• Troubleshoot day-to-day pipeline issues with patience and collaboration acrossAsset, FX, and Animation teams.
• Mentor Layout, Animation, and FX team members on crowd setup tools and workflows.

Skills

Python

Autodesk Maya

Atoms Crowd

Houdini

English communication

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Graphics/Computer Science

Tools

Atoms Crowd

Maya

Houdini

Python

Job description

Stellar Creative Lab is seeking a Crowd Technical Director in Vancouver, BC (Hybrid) for a premium Marvel Animation streaming series. You will build and maintain crowd pipelines and tools using Python, Maya, Houdini, and Atoms Crowd, while troubleshooting shot issues and supporting the team. This full-time role offers a competitive salary of CAD $93,000–$103,000 and comprehensive benefits.

Job Summary : Crowd Technical Director (Crowd TD)

Job Detail Specification

Position Title Crowd Technical Director (Crowd TD)

Company Name Stellar Creative Lab

Location Vancouver, BC, Canada (Flexible Hybrid Work Environment)

Employment Type Full-Time, Permanent

Department Crowd Pipelines & Technical Direction

Project Focus Premium Streaming Series for Marvel Animation

Salary Range CAD $93,000 – $103,000 per annum (commensurate with experience)

Core Software Autodesk Maya, Houdini, Atoms Crowd

Eligibility Legally eligible to work in BC, Canada (Priority given to BC Residents, Canadian Citizens, and Permanent Residents)

• Department: Crowd Systems / Technical Direction
• Experience Level: Experienced (3+ Years of Production Experience)

At Stellar, we aim to build a studio where people actually want to work. We face production’s inevitable ups and downs as a supportive, truly connected team, prioritizing open communication over anyone working in isolation. We value honesty, creativity, and looking out for one another.

We believe that diversity and inclusion are the absolute keys to boundless creativity and seamless collaboration. We are deeply committed to building a supportive, open, and diverse community where creative minds from all backgrounds can thrive, innovate, and grow. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our studio accessibility, and we always welcome feedback or suggestions from our creative community.

We are currently staffing up for a highly anticipated, epic-scale streaming series with Marvel Studios. To pull off the massive visual scale, complex battle sequences, and bustling environments required for the show, we need a brilliant, systems-minded Crowd Technical Director (Crowd TD).

This is an intensely technical role. You are not here to keyframe-animate individual characters; you are here to build the underlying tools, robust workflows, and scalable pipeline architecture that make our crowd artists look like absolute rockstars.

If you love untangling complex technical problems, writing elegant Python code, and acting as the supportive technical bridge between the Asset, FX, and Animation departments, we want you on our team. We need a proactive problem-solver who can spot pipeline bottlenecks from a mile away and build bulletproof solutions so the artists never have to experience operational stress.

As a Crowd TD at Stellar, your day-to-day contributions will span pipeline engineering, tool development, artist support, and cross-departmental coordination. Success in this role is defined by three core pillars:

• Pipeline Architecture: Design, build, and maintain a highly efficient, scalable crowd pipeline utilizing Autodesk Maya, Houdini, and Atoms Crowd.
• Prototyping & Testing: Proactively prototype and test shot pipelines, identifying technical gaps, data bottlenecks, or critical issues long before they ever reach the artists’ desks.
• Tool Creation: Write clean, modular, and efficient code to develop custom tools and technical solutions that directly expand the creative capabilities and throughput of the crowd team.

2. Technical Support & Troubleshooting

• The Technical Safety Net: Act as the ultimate technical safety net for the artist floor. You troubleshoot, debug, and resolve day-to-day production shot issues with patience, empathy, and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Lifecycle Ownership: Take total ownership of the complete crowd technical lifecycle, ensuring that data integrates smoothly and predictably into specific downstream workflows like FX and Lighting/Compositing (LRC).
• Calm Leadership: Maintain a calm, motivating, and reassuring presence during high-stress delivery windows, keeping the focus entirely on creative and technical solutions rather than assigning blame.
• Cross-Departmental Liaison: Serve as the friendly, knowledgeable technical liaison between the Asset and Shot departments, effectively translating high-level creative direction into functional technical realities.
• Artist Training & Mentorship: Coach, train, and guide Layout, Animation, and FX team members on existing and newly developed crowd setup tools so everyone feels fully confident and supported using the pipeline.
• Pipeline Engineering Sync: Partner closely with core pipeline developers and digital workflow supervisors to ensure all crowd systems are seamlessly integrated into the broader studio-wide pipeline infrastructure.

The Requirements: What We Are Looking For

To thrive in this specialized technical role, candidates must combine a deep understanding of digital crowd systems with advanced scripting capabilities and strong interpersonal skills:

Core Must-Haves

• Professional Experience: 3+ years of professional experience developing crowd setups, character systems, and pipeline tools within VFX feature films, high-end episodic TV, or animation productions.
• Technical & Scripting Expertise: Expert-level scripting and programming skills in Python, backed by a deep generalist technical knowledge of Autodesk Maya.
• Crowd Systems Mastery: Hands-on professional experience building digital crowd assets and simulations using Atoms Crowd, along with a very strong conceptual understanding of global crowd workflows.
• Problem-Solving Mindset: You are an exceptional problem-solver who can obsess over tiny technical details while maintaining a clear, macro-level view of the entire production pipeline.
• Communication Skills: Exceptional written and verbal English communication skills. You know how to explain complex technical concepts to artists in a way that is clear, deeply helpful, and entirely free of condescension.
• Legal Eligibility: Must be legally eligible to work in British Columbia, Canada. (Priority will be given to BC residents, Canadian citizens, and Canadian permanent residents).

Nice-to-Haves (Bonus Points)

• Working knowledge and practical experience with Houdini.
• A strong, demonstrable understanding of Linux-based operating systems and terminal environments.
• A formal degree in Computer Graphics, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

We take pride in taking care of our team members. Joining Stellar means gaining access to a comprehensive package of perks, professional development opportunities, and a world-class studio culture:

• Flexible Hybrid Environment: We offer a balanced, flexible hybrid schedule that adapts dynamically with project milestones and team collaboration requirements.
• Comprehensive Health Benefits: Extensive extended health, dental, and medical benefits package to keep you and your family fully supported.
• Continuous Professional Growth: Dedicated professional development support and mentorship structures to help you stay ahead of evolving industry technology and creative trends.
• Unmatched Studio Culture: A genuinely collaborative, ego-free, and supportive environment where technical expertise directly fuels creative magic.

Competitive Salary Range: CAD $93,000 to $103,000 per annum, structured fairly and competitively based on your professional experience level and technical skill set.

Hiring Crowd TD at Stellar Creative Lab, Canada 2026