You'llneed to be as credible talking to a Nuke compositor as you are in a boardroom with studio executives. * Codify repeatable playbooks: Document reference architectures, prompt engineering ...
You'llneed to be as credible talking to a Nuke compositor as you are in a boardroom with studio executives. * Codify repeatable playbooks: Document reference architectures, prompt engineering ...
COMPOSITE/PLASTIC FABRICATOR
Layton, UT · On-site
$52K - $74K/yr
... compositor OF plastic parts, assemblies, sub-assemblies or structures with straight and curved surfaces that have a number of interconnecting parts and components. 2. Knowledge of advanced shop ...
COMPOSITE/PLASTIC FABRICATOR
Layton, UT · On-site
$52K - $74K/yr
... compositor OF plastic parts, assemblies, sub-assemblies or structures with straight and curved surfaces that have a number of interconnecting parts and components. 2. Knowledge of advanced shop ...
Provides feedback and corrections to compositor. 7. Assists Editor with the transfer to publisher of all final revised and copy-edited files to be included in each issue. Minimum Qualifications: 1. ...
Provides feedback and corrections to compositor. 7. Assists Editor with the transfer to publisher of all final revised and copy-edited files to be included in each issue. Minimum Qualifications: 1. ...
Staff AI VFX Engineer
Los Angeles, CA · On-site
You'll need to be as credible talking to a Nuke compositor as you are in a boardroom with studio executives. * Codify repeatable playbooks: Document reference architectures, prompt engineering ...
Staff AI VFX Engineer
Los Angeles, CA · On-site
You'll need to be as credible talking to a Nuke compositor as you are in a boardroom with studio executives. * Codify repeatable playbooks: Document reference architectures, prompt engineering ...
Compositor information
See salary details
$5.29 - $7.34
0% of jobs
$7.34 - $9.40
0% of jobs
$9.40 - $11.45
0% of jobs
$11.45 - $13.51
0% of jobs
$13.51 - $15.56
0% of jobs
$15.56 - $17.61
0% of jobs
$17.61 - $19.67
0% of jobs
$19.67 - $21.72
0% of jobs
$21.72 - $23.78
0% of jobs
$23.78 - $25.83
2% of jobs
$26.31 is the 25th percentile. Wages below this are outliers.
$25.83 - $27.88
98% of jobs
$5
$27
How much do compositor jobs pay per hour?
As of Jul 16, 2026, the average hourly pay for compositor in the United States is $26.92, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $26.44 and $27.40 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.
What is the difference between Compositor vs Graphic Designer?
| Aspect | Compositor | Graphic Designer |
|---|---|---|
| Required Credentials | Typically a degree or diploma in film, media, or related fields; proficiency in compositing software | Degree or diploma in graphic design, visual arts, or related fields; proficiency in design software |
| Work Environment | Post-production studios, film sets, visual effects companies | Advertising agencies, design studios, corporate offices |
| Industry Usage | Film, television, visual effects | Marketing, branding, print and digital media |
| Common Search & Comparison | Yes | No |
The main difference between a Compositor and a Graphic Designer lies in their focus and work environment. Compositors specialize in combining visual elements in post-production for film and video, requiring skills in visual effects software. Graphic Designers create visual content for branding, advertising, and print, working primarily in design studios or agencies. While both roles involve visual creativity, their tools, industries, and end goals differ significantly.
What are some common challenges a Compositor faces when integrating CGI elements with live-action footage?
A key challenge for Compositors is achieving seamless integration between computer-generated imagery (CGI) and live-action footage. This often involves matching lighting, color grading, and perspective to ensure visual consistency. Compositors must also address issues like edge blending, motion tracking, and removing unwanted artifacts. Attention to detail and strong collaboration with other VFX team members are essential, as multiple iterations may be required to meet the director's vision and the project's technical standards.
What Is a Compositor?
A compositor is responsible for constructing the final image in a film, animation, or video by combining all the layers into the finished product. The artistic and technical skills of these creative interpreters come into play at the end of the production process. As a compositor, your job duties entail taking computer generated or animation images and adding effects such as enhanced lighting, motion blur, and adjusted color levels. You use the latest in compositor software to act as the translator of the various inputs into the finished image.
Why is Gen Z struggling to get jobs?
Gen Z faces challenges in securing jobs like compositors due to high competition, evolving industry skills requirements, and the need for proficiency with digital tools and software. Additionally, economic factors and limited work experience can impact their employment opportunities in creative and technical fields.
What is the job of a compositor?
A compositor is responsible for combining visual elements from different sources into a final image or sequence, often using software like Adobe After Effects or Nuke. They work in film, television, or video production to create seamless visual effects, requiring skills in digital editing and attention to detail.
What is the highest paid art job?
In the field of art, roles such as art directors, concept artists, and senior illustrators tend to have the highest salaries, especially in industries like advertising, film, and video game development. These positions often require advanced skills, extensive experience, and proficiency with tools like Adobe Creative Suite or 3D modeling software.
What are compositors?
Compositors are professionals in the visual effects (VFX) and film industry who combine visual elements from different sources into single images, creating the final look of a shot or scene. They use specialized software to blend live-action footage, computer-generated imagery (CGI), matte paintings, and other elements seamlessly. Their work ensures that all visual components appear as if they were filmed together, enhancing the overall realism and artistic intent of the project.
What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Compositor, and why are they important?
To thrive as a Compositor, you need a strong understanding of visual effects principles, color theory, and digital image manipulation, often supported by a degree in animation, film, or a related field. Proficiency with industry-standard software such as Nuke, After Effects, or Fusion, as well as familiarity with render management systems, is essential. Attention to detail, problem-solving abilities, and effective communication are crucial soft skills for collaborating with teams and ensuring seamless final shots. These skills ensure high-quality visual integration, efficient workflow, and the delivery of compelling, believable content in film, television, or advertising.
How much does a compositor get paid?
A compositor's salary varies based on experience, location, and industry, but the median annual pay in the United States is around $60,000 to $80,000. Entry-level positions typically start lower, while experienced compositors working in high-demand environments or with specialized skills can earn over $100,000 annually.
More about Compositor jobs
What cities are hiring for Compositor jobs? Cities with the most Compositor job openings:
What are the most commonly searched types of Compositor jobs? The most popular types of Compositor jobs are:
What states have the most Compositor jobs? States with the most job openings for Compositor jobs include:
What job categories do people searching Compositor jobs look for? The top searched job categories for Compositor jobs are:
What are popular job titles related to Compositor jobs? For Compositor jobs, the most frequently searched job titles are:
Job description
The Opportunity
As AI rapidly transforms creative industries, professional production workflows must evolve alongside it. AtFirefly Foundry,we'releading an industry-first initiative to define how generative AI integrates into high-end visual effects for feature films and episodic content. Amajor franchise holderdoesn'tget a genericmodel;they get a model that knowstheircharacters, environments, and visual style, integrated directly into production-grade tools.
Generative AI has limited practical application in VFX pipelines with real world production challenges. The true breakthrough will come from achieving production-grade quality, deeply integrating with existing DCC tools, andestablishingAI as a new, fully realized field within visual effects.That'sexactly whatwe'rebuilding. At Firefly Foundry, we approach this work with a deep respect for the artistry and craft of VFX. Our mission is grounded in empowering artists while ensuring the responsible and commercially safe use of AI in production environments.
We'relooking for pioneers who want to help define what AI-driven VFX looks like at the highest level.You'llwork directly with studios, VFX houses, and creative leadership to take Firefly Foundry from pilot to production-scale deployment.
WhatYou'llDo
Build andvalidateAI-driven VFX workflows:Design end-to-end pipelines that integrate Firefly Foundry's custom-trained diffusion and video models into compositing, look-dev,previs, and virtual production.You'llwrite working prototypes,not slide deckstoprove outnew approacheswith real shot data.
Solve hard production problems:Tackle the issues thatblockadoption: temporal coherence across shot sequences,maintainingart-directable control over generated elements, matching on-set lighting and lens characteristics, and hitting the fidelity bar that supervisors demand.
Own the integration surface:Define how Firefly Foundry models plug into Nuke, Houdini, Maya, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Substance 3D. Design the APIs, node graphs, and plugin architectures that make AI-generated assets first-class citizens in existing pipelines,including USD/OpenEXR/ACES-compliant outputs.
Shape the product from the production floor:Translate what you learn from studio engagements into concrete product requirements for the Firefly and Firefly Foundry engineering teams.You'rethe bridge between what a VFX supervisor needs at 2 AM during a color session and what our model architecture can deliver.
Implement and prototypemulti-modal model orchestration:Firefly Foundrydoesn'tship a single model. Itshipsa coordinated stack of image, video, animation, and 3D generation models that need to work together. You'll design the orchestration layer: how a character generated in the image model maintains identity when animated by thevideo model; how texture maps generated for Substance 3Dstayconsistent with hero shots generated in the image pipeline; how style transfer models constrain the output space to a franchise's visual language across all modalities.
Engage studio and VFX leadership:Present to CTOs, VFX supervisors, and heads of production. Run technical deep-dives and creative workshops.You'llneed to be as credible talking to a Nuke compositor as you are in a boardroom with studio executives.
Codify repeatable playbooks:Document reference architectures, prompt engineering strategies for VFX use cases, quality evaluation pipelines, and deploymentpatternsso the next studio engagementdoesn'tstart from scratch.
Required
5 - 10+ years in VFX engineering, pipeline TD, or tools development with shipped credits in film, episodic, or AAA gaming.
Deep fluency in production VFX workflows: compositing (Nuke), 3D (Maya/Houdini), rendering, look-dev,previs/postvis, editorial handoff, and review (Shotgrid, Frame.io, or equivalent).
Working knowledge of generative AI fundamentalse.g.diffusionmodels,LoRA/fine-tuning, ControlNet-style conditioning, prompt engineering, andevaluationmetrics (FID, CLIP, perceptual loss). Youdon'tneed to have trained a model from scratch, but you need to understandwhat'shappening under the hood well enough to debug workflow failures.
Proficiencyin Python and at least one of C++, Rust, or TypeScript. Comfortable writing production-quality code, not just scripts.
Familiarity with VFX data standards:OpenEXR, ACES, USD, Alembic,OpenColorIO.
Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical studio leadership. Strong written communication,you can write a clear 1-pager or technical design doc.
Preferred
Credits on major feature films or high-profile episodic VFX (think tentpole-scale, not just indie shorts).
Experience with real-time rendering (Unreal Engine, virtual production stages, LED volumes).
Hands-on experience fine-tuning or deploying generative models (Stable Diffusion, Runway,ComfyUI, or similar).
Background in computer vision or image processing (optical flow, segmentation, depth estimation, upscaling).
Prior experience in a customer-facing technical role (solutions engineer, field CTO, technical account lead).
WhoYou'llWork With
Firefly Foundry Applied Scientists, product engineers,VFX and M&E Solutions Engineers, Adobe product teams across Firefly, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Substance 3D, and Frame.io, plus Customer Success, Security/Privacy/Legal, and Partner/Alliances. Externally,you'llbe embedded with studio technical leadership, VFX supervisors, and pipeline teams.
Logistics
Location: Hybrid/Remote flexible.
Travel: ~10-15% to studios, post houses, production locations, and industry events (SIGGRAPH, NAB, VES, etc.).
Why This Role
You'llbe defining a category,notiterating onan existing product. Custom-trained generative AI for VFX productiondoesn'thave a playbook yet.You'rewriting it.
Adobe's creative tool ecosystem (Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, Substance 3D, Frame.io) gives Firefly Foundry a distribution and integration advantage that no pure-play AI startup can match.
You'll work directly with major studios and franchise holders on IP that you'llactually seeon screen.
You'llhave a direct line from field reality to product roadmap,the kind of influence that senior engineers at most companies never get.
#FireflyGenAI
About Adobe
Adobe empowers everyone to create through innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. Adobe's industry-leading offerings including Adobe Acrobat Studio, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Manager, and GenStudio enable people and businesses to turn ideas into impact, powered by AI and driven by human ingenuity.
Our 30,000+ employees worldwide are creating the future and raising the bar as we drive the next decade of growth. We're on a mission to hire the very best and believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. At Adobe, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. The next big idea could be yours.
Let's Adobe together
At Adobe, we believe in creating a company culture where all employees are empowered to make an impact. Learn more about Adobe life, including our values and culture, focus on people, purpose and community, Adobe for All, comprehensive benefits programs, the stories we tell, the customers we serve, and how you can help us advance our mission of empowering everyone to create.
Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Learn more.
Adobe aims to make our Careers website and recruiting process accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process, email accommodations@adobe.com or call +1 408-536-3015.
AI Use Guidelines for Interviews:
Our interviews are designed to reflect your own skills and thinking. The use of AI or recording tools during live interviews is not permitted unless explicitly invited by the interviewer or approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation. If these tools are used inappropriately or in a way that misrepresents your work, your application may not move forward in the process.
At Adobe, we empower employees to innovate with AI - and we look for candidates eager to do the same. As part of the hiring experience, we provide clear guidance on where AI is encouraged during the process and where it's restricted during live interviews. See how we think about AI in the hiring experience.
Expected Pay Range:
Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this positionis $172,500 -- $306,625 annually. Paywithin this range varies by work locationand may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills,and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process. In California, the pay range for this position is $211,800 - $306,625 In Washington, the pay range for this position is $201,000 - $291,150At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).
In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.
State-Specific Notices:
California:
Fair Chance Ordinances
Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and "fair chance" ordinances.
Colorado:
Application Window Notice
There is no deadline to apply to this job posting because Adobe accepts applications for this role on an ongoing basis. The posting will remain open based on hiring needs and position availability.
Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Legal Notice
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
About Adobe
Sourced by ZipRecruiter
Adobe for All is our vision to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across our company and in our communities. We’re focused on creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce; unleashing the full potential of every employee; and driving meaningful impact for Adobe, our industry, and society at large. Creativity has the power to unite us and inspire us to change the world. Through a vision we call Creativity for All, we’re empowering millions of people of all ages and backgrounds to express themselves, reach their full potential, and share their diverse perspectives with the world. We’re committed to advancing the responsible use of technology and driving a positive environmental impact through sustainability and climate action. Our innovations are making a significant impact across AI ethics, security, privacy, trust and safety, accessibility, and sustainability.
Industry
Computer and computer peripheral equipment and software wholesalers
Company size
10,000+ Employees
Headquarters location
San Jose, CA, US
Year founded
1982