Staff Software Engineer - USD Authoring

Walt Disney Animation Studios; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 143,000 - 192,000; Full time

Job summary

Walt Disney Animation Studios Vancouver Inc. in Canada seeks a senior software engineer to advance production technology across core libraries and artist-facing tools. You will design workflows, build APIs, and collaborate with artists, production leadership, and engineers across sites to deliver state-of-the-art pipeline solutions.

The role emphasizes leadership in architectural design and tool development, with an eye toward scalable, high-performance systems used in feature animation.

Qualifications

• 7+ years designing and developing interactive tools, with 3+ years in senior technical roles designing core infrastructure.
• Strong experience with C++ (including X11/X14) and Python.
• Strong experience with USD and Qt.
• Ability to collaborate with stakeholders and lead cross-disciplinary teams of engineers.
• Exemplary communication, teamwork and problem solving, balancing timeliness with sustainability.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement innovative workflows and state-of-the-art solutions for animation pipelines.
• Lead API development to access shot content and data management tools.
• Collaborate with artists, production leadership, technical directors and other engineers across sites.
• Develop artist dashboards to monitor tasks and foster collaboration and visibility into production.

Skills

C++

Python

USD (Universal Scene Description)

Qt (Desktop)

API design

Architectural design

Cross-disciplinary leadership

Education

BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field

Tools

Qt development tools

Job description

At Walt Disney Animation Studios we have a deep commitment to the philosophy that creativity inspires technology, and technology inspires creativity. Engineers in our Production Technology department are charged with developing and implementing new algorithms to solve unique and challenging problems for all of our animated content. We do this working alongside a user base that shares a collaborative environment with us, and uses the code we develop to make our feature films.

We are looking for an engineer to join our Production Technology team, targeting software development in multiple domains, from core libraries to user interfaces. In this role, you will be a part of a team of cross-site developers who partner closely with artists, production and technology leadership, technical directors, cross-team software engineers, and other technologists and researchers across Walt Disney Studios. You will be leading efforts related to designing and implementing innovative workflows and state of the art solutions motivated by our new long-term vision for Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Projects Include

• Designing and implementing core infrastructure to manage our shot, environment, and asset definitions and structures
• Building new APIs to allow for artist-facing and data management tools to more readily access shot content
• Supporting our productions by identifying and solving technical obstacles encountered by our artists
• Extending and improving the core libraries used for end-user tool creation
• Creating new user interfaces and tools for artists and technical directors to author, edit, access, and inspect shot and asset content
• Adopting new external DCC’s and integrating them into our pipeline
• Writing new tools and plugins into 3rd party apps for rough to fine story development
• Devising artist dashboards for consolidating and managing tasks, encouraging collaboration and visibility into the characters, environments, story and the overall film making process

What does it mean to be a developer here at WDAS?

• Our engineers get the opportunity to work on the full stack of our tools, from developing the underlying algorithms through building intuitive artist-friendly interfaces.
• Work hand in hand with artists to make the tools we need for the incredibly complex and rich characters and environments featured in our movies.
• Develop on top of a highly performant, extendable in-house application framework.
• Develop new artist-centric interaction models using the latest hardware and technologies.

Key Qualifications

• Strong experience with C++ (including x11/x14) or equivalent experience
• Strong experience with Python or equivalent experience
• Strong experience with USD (Universal Scene Description)
• Strong experience with Qt (for desktop development) or equivalent experience
• 7+ years experience designing and developing interactive tools, with 3+ years in senior technical roles designing core infrastructure
• Partner with Technology leadership to establish architectural vision for key new frameworks including data models, GUI toolkits, and underlying core libraries and evaluation engines.
• Extensive experience designing APIs from scratch as well as designing APIs that extend existing frameworks.
• Ability to collaborate with team members across different disciplines including directly interfacing with stakeholders to understand requirements
• Experience guiding cross disciplinary teams of engineers over open ended technical problem domains.
• Demonstrated ability to lead development from architectural design to implementation, and through adoption, helping build adoptions plans and strategies with incremental integration milestones through a collaboration with key stakeholders.
• Exemplary communication, teamwork and problem solving skills, balancing the timeliness of solutions with their sustainability. Able to collaborate with team and leadership to prioritize competing demands based on business value.
• BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field

Bonus Qualifications

• Understanding of computer graphics foundational concepts, and algorithms
• Knowledge of animation, graphics techniques and algorithms
• Experience building clean interfaces using modern UI development toolkits such as Qt
• Experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives, aligning engineering efforts with broader organizational, production, or business priorities.
• Ability to mentor and develop engineers through technical guidance, knowledge sharing, career coaching, and fostering a collaborative team environment.
• Strong mathematical fundamentals, including linear algebra and numerical methods
• Strong understanding of coding process, standards, continuous integration and testing principles
• Masters in Computer Science

The hiring range for this position in British Columbia, Canada is C$143,100 to C$191,950 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other variable pay or benefits, may be offered dependent on the level and position offered.

Disclaimer

This position is with Walt Disney Animation Studios Vancouver Inc., which is part of a business we call Walt Disney Animation Studios.

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