Technical Director

Yotta is looking for Pipeline Manager Datacenter Integration & Development (VFX / Animation)

About the Role

The Pipeline Manager will lead the design, integration, and operational governance of production pipelines within a high-performance datacenter environment supporting feature film visual effects and animation workloads. This role is responsible for bridging Digital Content Creation (DCC) applications, render management systems, storage infrastructure, and cloud-native compute platforms to ensure scalable, reliable, and efficient production workflows. Operating at the intersection of creative production and enterprise-scale infrastructure, the Pipeline Manager will oversee the development and deployment of pipeline tools, ensure seamless interoperability between on-premise and cloud compute environments, and establish robust operational standards for performance, reliability, and scalability. This role requires both strategic leadership and hands-on technical expertise in pipeline architecture, distributed rendering, infrastructure integration, and production workflow optimization.

Responsibilities

• Pipeline Architecture & Infrastructure Integration
• Lead the design and evolution of production pipeline architecture across DCC platforms, render management systems, storage systems, and datacenter compute infrastructure.
• Architect and implement scalable integrations between creative applications (such as Houdini, Maya, and Nuke) and high-performance render farms operating within datacenter and cloud environments.
• Oversee pipeline interoperability across hybrid infrastructure, including Uptime Certified datacenter CPU / GPU clusters, cloud compute, and distributed storage platforms.
• Ensure pipeline reliability, scalability, and performance optimization aligned with enterprise datacenter operational standards.

• Datacenter Workflow Integration & Optimization
• Establish and maintain seamless integration between production pipelines and datacenter infrastructure, including compute orchestration, job scheduling, storage systems, and data transfer frameworks.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, storage, and network engineering teams to optimize throughput, latency, and compute utilization for rendering and simulation workloads.
• Drive automation initiatives to improve pipeline efficiency, reduce operational overhead, and enhance system resilience.
• Implement robust monitoring, logging, and performance analysis tools to ensure operational stability and proactive issue resolution.

• Pipeline Development & Tooling Governance
• Lead development and maintenance of pipeline tools, APIs, and automation frameworks supporting production workflows.
• Establish standards for pipeline code quality, deployment, version control, and lifecycle management.
• Oversee plugin deployment, version compatibility, and validation across distributed compute environments.
• Ensure robust data integrity, asset lifecycle management, and workflow consistency across departments.

• Operational Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Serve as the primary technical liaison between production teams, pipeline engineering, infrastructure teams, and datacenter operations.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to pipeline developers and technical teams.
• Define operational policies, deployment strategies, and pipeline governance models aligned with production and infrastructure requirements.
• Provide accurate capacity planning, workload forecasting, and resource optimization strategies.

• Strategic Planning & Continuous Improvement
• Evaluate emerging technologies in cloud computing, distributed rendering, containerization, and infrastructure orchestration to enhance pipeline capabilities.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on scalability, automation, and operational excellence.
• Support strategic initiatives related to cloud adoption, infrastructure modernization, and production scalability.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in VFX, animation, or media production pipeline development and management.
• Proven experience designing and managing production pipelines integrated with datacenter or cloud infrastructure.
• Strong expertise in Linux-based environments and distributed compute systems.
• Advanced Python scripting and pipeline automation experience.
• Deep understanding of render farm architecture, job scheduling, and workload orchestration.
• Experience integrating DCC applications such as Houdini, Maya, or Nuke into large-scale production pipelines.
• Strong understanding of storage systems, high-throughput data workflows, and asset lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated leadership experience managing pipeline teams and cross-functional technical collaboration.

Required Skills

• Experience working within hyperscale datacenter environments.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms, containerization, and infrastructure orchestration frameworks.
• Experience supporting GPU-accelerated rendering and simulation workflows.
• Knowledge of pipeline deployment automation, CI/CD workflows, and infrastructure monitoring systems.
• Experience working in enterprise-scale production environments supporting feature film or large-scale animation workloads.

Preferred Skills

• Pipeline architecture and systems thinking.
• Infrastructure integration and distributed computing expertise.
• Technical leadership and team mentorship.
• Operational excellence and reliability engineering mindset.
• Cross-functional collaboration and communication.
• Strategic planning and scalable systems design.