Senior Platform Engineer

Rodeo FX; Montreal (administrative region); On-site; CAD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Group Insurance

RRSP with employer contribution

Discounts on local businesses

Job summary

Rodeo FX is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to help build and operate the technical platform that our VFX pipeline runs on. You will work with Pipeline Developers and IT to keep the platform current, containerized, and reproducible, reducing change costs and risk while enabling rapid tool adoption.

The ideal candidate has strong software and systems engineering fundamentals, practical VFX pipeline packaging experience, and a bias for dependable, scalable operations across shows and sites.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software/platform/DevOps/pipeline engineering, preferably in VFX/animation.
• Experience with Linux enterprise distributions and large-scale upgrades or migrations.
• Hands-on containerization and reproducible environment/build tooling experience.
• Strong Python skills and software engineering practices (VCS, testing, packaging).
• Experience with dependency and environment management (Rez is a strong asset).
• Solid CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code knowledge for safe, repeatable changes.
• Familiarity with VFX pipelines and DCCs (Maya, Houdini, Nuke, Katana).
• Experience contributing to open-source pipeline tooling is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Build and own the systems and processes keeping the VFX platform current.
• Containerize pipeline software and services for portable, reproducible environments.
• Design configurable production pipelines per show, site, or team.
• Advance infrastructure-as-code to keep the platform nimble.
• Maintain and extend the Rez package ecosystem and environment configurations.
• Collaborate with pipeline developers to make releases fast, safe, and rollback-ready.
• Improve build, packaging, and distribution tooling for reliability.

Skills

Linux expertise

Python

CI/CD

Docker/Containerization

Rez packaging

Communication

Team collaboration

Problem solving

Tools

Docker

Podman

Rez

Maya

Houdini

Nuke

Job description

Company Description

Repeatedly voted one of Montreal’s Top Employers and Employer of the Year for the 2022 Mercuriades Awards, Rodeo FX is a high-end creative company offering services in visual effects, advertising, animation, and experiential.

Nominated for multiple Emmy® Awards for its work on the seriesStranger Thingsseason 4,Avatar: The Last AirbenderandThe Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power,the independent, Oscar®-winning company boasts close to 800 artists crafting from studios in Montreal, Québec City, Toronto, Los Angeles and Paris.

Rodeo FX is a creative partner to the world’s best storytellers including Netflix, HBO, Disney, Marvel, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros. and Sony, and has collaborated on ads for YouTube, NBC and Apple. Current projects includeDune: Prophecy, SiloSeason 2andSonic 3. Recently released projects includeThe Rings of Power Season 2, Venom: The Last Dance,Taika Waitit'sTime Bandits,andHouse of the Dragon Season 2.

Work arrangements:

As an artist-founded and artist-led company, creativity is at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is to give our talent the freedom, resources, and environment they need to produce high-quality work and thrive in a stimulating, collaborative, and supportive setting.

Given their key role in team leadership, decision-making, communication, and operational and production support, managers, supervisors, production team members, and support functions, including Finance, HR, and IT, are expected to work from the studio at least four days per week.

This increased presence helps strengthen collaboration, maintain closer proximity with teams, support operational needs more effectively, and sustain a strong, vibrant, and aligned studio culture.

Job Description

Summary:

Rodeo FX is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to help build and operate the technical platform that our VFX pipeline runs on. As the VFX team scales, we need a dependable, well-managed software platform that lets us adopt new tool versions quickly, keep every environment consistent, and reconfigure the production pipeline without disruption.

In this role, you will collaborate with Pipeline Developers and IT on the foundations that keep the VFX platform current and nimble: staying on top of software updates, containerizing pipeline software and services, making environments reproducible and configurable, and managing packages and dependencies with Rez. Your core mission is to reduce the cost and risk of change so the studio can evolve its toolset quickly and safely.

The ideal candidate combines strong software and systems engineering fundamentals with a practical understanding of how a VFX pipeline is packaged, deployed, and operated at scale. You are comfortable working across the boundary between development and operations, and you care about making complex systems dependable, reproducible, and easy to evolve.

Main responsibilities:

Platform Currency & Software Lifecycle

• Build and own the systems and processes that keep the VFX software platform current: tracking, testing, and rolling out new versions of DCCs, plugins, libraries, and internal tools.
• Reduce the cost and risk of upgrades (including OS and dependency migrations) so the studio can adopt new software quickly and safely, with clear rollback paths.
• Establish repeatable validation and release workflows so platform changes reach artists reliably and with minimal manual effort.
• Containerize pipeline software and services to make environments portable, reproducible, and isolated from host-level drift.
• Design the production pipeline to be configurable, so environments, tool versions, and workflows can be adjusted per show, per site, or per team without bespoke rebuilds.
• Advance infrastructure-as-code and declarative configuration so the platform stays nimble and easy to reason about as it changes.
• Maintain and extend the Rez package ecosystem: package definitions, resolution rules, release process, and environment configuration.
• Partner with pipeline developers to make software and dependency releases fast, predictable, and safe to roll back.
• Improve build, packaging, and distribution tooling so new tools and library versions reach artists reliably.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software, platform, DevOps, or pipeline engineering experience, ideally in VFX, animation, gaming, or a comparable production-technology environment.
• Strong Linux systems knowledge, including experience with enterprise distributions (RHEL / Rocky / CentOS) and managing software upgrades or environment migrations at scale.
• Hands-on experience with containerization (Docker, Podman, or similar) and reproducible environment/build tooling.
• Strong Python skills, with solid software engineering practices (version control, testing, code review, packaging).
• Experience with dependency and environment management (Rez specifically is a strong asset; equivalent packaging/environment systems are also relevant).
• Solid grasp of CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code, with a track record of making change safe and repeatable.
• Familiarity with a VFX pipeline and DCCs (Maya, Houdini, Nuke, Katana, or similar) is an asset.
• Familiarity with VFX production tracking systems (Flow Production Tracking, FTrack, AYON, or similar) is an asset.
• Experience contributing to open-source pipeline tooling (e.g. Rez or other Academy Software Foundation projects) is a plus; we support upstreaming improvements where it benefits the wider community.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across creative, technical, and operations teams.

Additional Information

• Full-time, Permanent Contract;
• 2 additional statutory holidays in the winter holidays;
• Group Insurance, access to Dialogue online support and to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP);
• RRSP with employer contribution;
• Discounts on public transports, several spas, sports classes, art center, cafes, furniture and several other local businesses.

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

At Rodeo FX, diversity is a core value. We’re committed to creating an inclusive, equitable workplace where different perspectives are embraced. Every team member brings unique insight that strengthens our creativity, challenges our thinking, and helps us deliver better work.

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