Finishing Technical Director

Finishing Technical Director, Motion Picture Labs

The Walt Disney Studios has created one of the most powerful brands by bringing memorable, life-changing storytelling to the world.  Our studio film franchises have redefined the genre in building a universe filled with creativity, innovation, and collaboration.  As part of the Motion Picture Labs at Walt Disney Studios; you’ll be joining a group of seasoned, dedicated technologists solving a range of interesting problems in innovative ways in an exciting and dynamic environment.

The Motion Picture Labs is looking for a Finishing Technical Director, in this role, you will be a liaison between the Finishing team and the technical support team including engineers, networking, storage, image & color, and software development teams with the goal of providing full 24/7 support for DI Finishing operations. You will also be responsible for working with the relevant stakeholders to ensure the health and optimum operating capability of the production infrastructures for Marvel Studios Finishing. You’ll report to the Manager, Motion Picture Labs Finishing at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA. 

As a part of the team, your role will require constant engagement and regular cross-departmental involvement.  You will help guide both technical and finishing teams on best practices, and influence decisions that impact the pipeline with a holistic view of success.  You will build custom pipeline tools, integrating with all relevant developments within these areas of our pipeline.

You will work closely with all operational departments and production teams and develop requirements for workflow or projects. You will be a key point of contact for technical queries relating to the production infrastructure. This role will interface with all the relevant technical teams to define needs, assess potential areas of risk, recommend solutions, and provide timely feedback to steer their efforts to support and optimize any processes that affect Finishing.

You will have day-to-day engagement with the Production Engineering team, including 1st line technical support to operational teams, out-of-hours on-call support and delivery of project-based tasks associated with the production network and vast exposure to multiple production networks.

Specific Responsibilities

• Expertise with DaVinci Resolve and Baselight systems with an emphasis on professional-level, collaboration-focused workflows.
• Provide front-line Finishing support across a wide range of disciplines, troubleshoot assets and shots, and help stakeholders with general problem-solving. Monitor artists requests, package up problems and redirect to appropriate engineering team.
• Work with Software Dev and Workflow team to test and validate tools and techniques in Finishing. Work closely with engineering teams in testing and releasing new and modified software systems.
• Build custom tools and pipeline solutions, troubleshoot script automation errors and/or find workarounds to solve time sensitive roadblocks.
• Focus on automation and improving overall workflows and processes
• Work closely with development teams to better understand user requirements to improve and implement software solutions for Production end users
• Create documentation of each jobs’ workflow specifications as necessary.
• Collaborate with appropriate teams ensuring accurate color flow between software, monitoring and renders between artists and systems.
• Distill complex technical issues into actionable bullet points that can be understood by non-technical members of the team.
• Communicate with Stakeholders, including engineers, networking, storage, image & color, and software development teams with the goal of providing full support for Finishing operations.
• Provide assistance and technical information to stakeholders when required.
• Ensure excellent customer service by identifying the needs and wants of stakeholders and responding to their concerns and problems in an effective, timely manner.

Experience and Requirements

• Extensive experience working in a technical capacity servicing professional DI/finishing environment.
• Familiarity with visual effects production techniques and processes.
• Very strong communication skills.
• Highly organized, with a strong attention to detail
• Proven ability to think on your feet and improvise solutions on the fly
• A strong desire to bring cutting edge innovative technology to elevate the finishing space. 
• Understanding of common industry tools and production practices.
• Proficiency in Linux
• Python scripting required

Desired Skills

• College degree preferred or additional production certificate programs. 
• Knowledge in ACES color workflows and custom camera color pipelines and DI processing techniques. 
• Innovative mindset Interested in emerging technology and new workflows.
• Willingness and aptitude to educate both internal and external entities with varying degrees of knowledge in your area of expertise.

The hiring range for this position is $102,500 to $137,500 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. 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 bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.