Junior Pipeline Developer

Why This Role

This is a chance to own real tools end to end. Youll build internal tools and automation that a whole studio of creative professionals uses every day take modules from idea to production in months rather than years and work on modern tech cloud infrastructure a fast-growing AI/ML layer and USD-based data workflows instead of maintaining legacy code. AI is expanding quickly in this space and this role sits right at that edge: youll help decide how ML tooling gets built into real production workflows not just consume it. Theres a clear path to grow into deeper platform and R&D work with senior engineers to learn from and junior developers to mentor. If you like building tools that visibly make peoples work faster youll enjoy it here.

About FutureWorks

FutureWorks is a leading VFX and animation studio with 17 years delivering high-quality visual effects and post production for feature films OTT television and commercials. Behind the creative work is a serious software problem: hundreds of artists terabytes of assets and complex multi-stage workflows that all need tooling automation and integration to run smoothly. Thats what our pipeline and R&D teams build and its the work this role is part of.

About the Role

Were looking for a strong Python developer to design build and maintain the internal tools and automation that keep our production pipeline plain terms: youll build the desktop apps services and automation that connect the many applications artists use move data between stages of production and remove manual repetitive work.

At its core this is a software engineering role. If you write clean well-structured Python enjoy building tools that solve real problems for real users and like integrating systems through their APIs youll do well here whether or not youve worked in VFX or media before. The domain-specific stack (our production-tracking system the creative applications USD) is a niche skill set and were glad to train the right engineer on it. We care far more about the fundamentals that are hard to teach: Python craftsmanship problem-solving and a tools-builder mindset.

What Youll Do

• Design develop and maintain Python tools and automation for asset management publishing rendering and general workflow optimization.

• Build desktop tools and internal applications and integrate Python with the applications your users work in day to day.

• Diagnose and resolve complex technical issues across the pipeline.

• Collaborate with artists supervisors and production teams to turn workflow problems into practical technical solutions.

• Review code mentor junior developers and write clear technical deployment and user documentation.

• Build and integrate AI/ML-assisted tooling into user workflows for example wiring models for tasks like image cleanup denoising upscaling or asset generation into the pipeline and building the tools around them that make them usable in production.

• Contribute to R&D on emerging pipeline technology including USD-based data workflows and cloud rendering and help shape how new AI capabilities are adopted as the space evolves.

What Were Looking For (Required)

• 03 years of professional Python development with strong OOP fundamentals.

• Demonstrable experience building internal tools automation or applications that other people rely on.

• Experience integrating Python with a host application or platform through its API (any domain this is a transferable skill).

• Strong Git skills and comfort working across Linux and Windows.

• Good working knowledge of REST APIs JSON YAML XML and databases.

• Strong debugging and problem-solving ability and a collaborative approach to working with non-technical users.

Adjacent Backgrounds Welcome

We welcome strong engineers from adjacent fields. A background in developer tools creative or content-authoring tools game engines ML tooling data platforms desktop application development or automation and DevOps systems maps closely to this work VFX experience is not required to apply.

Nice to Have (Or Well Help You Learn)

None of the below is required. Each strengthens an application but were glad to train a strong engineer on the ones theyre missing.

• UI development with PySide2 / PySide6 and Qt Designer.

• Experience integrating ML models into applications or pipelines (calling model APIs running inference in production tooling or wiring ML services into user-facing tools) a growing part of this role.

• Experience with a production-tracking systems API (ours is ShotGrid / Flow Production Tracking and its Toolkit SGTK) or any comparable system you can learn from.

• Python scripting or plugin development for creative / DCC applications such as Maya Houdini Nuke or Katana.

• Render farm systems (e.g. Deadline) Docker CI/CD or cloud deployments.

• Perforce or advanced Git workflows.

• Familiarity with USD Alembic OpenEXR or OpenColorIO.

Qualifications

Bachelors degree in Computer Science IT Software Engineering or a related field or equivalent practical experience. We care about what you can build not only whats on paper.

What We Offer

• Meaningful software ownership on tools used across a real production studio.

• Exposure to cutting-edge technology AI/ML tooling cloud and USD and a clear path to grow into the pipeline and R&D domain.

• A collaborative environment working alongside experienced engineers artists and R&D teams.

• Real technical ownership mentoring opportunities and room to grow.