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Houdini Technical Director

Location: New Orleans, LA - Onsite
Studio: Swaybox Studios
Department: VFX / Technical Direction
Reports To: VFX Supervisor
Employment Type: Full Time

Why join Swaybox Studios?

At Swaybox Studios is rewriting the rulebook of visual storytelling. As we collaborate with DC Studios/Warner Bros Pictures Animation and Matt Reeves' 6th and Idaho on a revolutionary new project, you'll play a vital role in coordinating the artistry and logistics that bring bold visions to life. This is your chance to help lead a production that's equal parts innovative and unforgettable.

Job Summary:

Swaybox Studios is seeking an experienced Houdini Technical Director to develop, implement, and maintain tools, procedures, and workflows that optimize our Houdini pipeline across VFX, Animation, Unreal, and Technical Direction teams.

Working closely with artists, supervisors, and pipeline developers, you'll create intuitive procedural tools that automate repetitive tasks, improve production efficiency, and solve complex technical challenges. You'll play a critical role in ensuring our artists have reliable, scalable workflows, while helping evolve the studio's overall pipeline architecture to support a hybrid production environment. 

This role leans heavily into the technical side, but relies on the creative understanding for the needs of the artists. It's ideal for someone who enjoys solving difficult technical problems, building artist-friendly tools, node graphs, HDA structures, VEX expressions, and collaborating across departments to continually improve how work gets done. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop, maintain, and optimize custom Houdini Digital Assets (HDAs), procedural tools, scripts, and workflows that improve artist efficiency and uphold pipeline best practices.
• Design scalable procedural systems that support simulation, environments, asset generation, geometry processing, lighting, and other production workflows.
• Develop and maintain non-destructive scene-graph pipelines and create custom operators for the artists to work from.
• Implement and maintain naming conventions, asset organization standards, version control practices, and pipeline integrations that align with the studio's production infrastructure.
• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues related to Houdini tools, simulations, procedural networks, asset processing, caching, lighting, rendering, and pipeline integration, serving as a primary technical resource for artists.
• Automate manual production tasks through Python, VEX, and Houdini's procedural framework to improve consistency, efficiency, and reliability.
• Balance immediate production support with long-term pipeline development, prioritizing critical production needs, while continuing to improve studio workflows.
• Collaborate closely with Supervisors, Pipeline TDs, Production, and artists to identify workflow challenges and develop practical technical solutions.
• Create and maintain technical documentation, user guides, training materials, and onboarding resources that encourage successful adoption of new tools and workflows.
• Continuously evaluate production workflows, artist feedback, and emerging technologies to recommend improvements that enhance efficiency and creative flexibility.
• Partner with Pipeline, Unreal, Maya, and Nuke Technical Directors to ensure smooth interoperability between applications and maintain a cohesive production pipeline.
• Collaborate with Pipeline TDs and Render Wranglers to integrate Houdini and Arnold with Deadline in-house and via cloud-based rendering.
• Use ShotGrid (Flow Production Tracking) API to automatically configure networks within Houdini.
• Excel in a fast-paced environment, with shifting priorities and tight deadlines, demonstrating exceptional organization and flexibility.
• Stay current with advances in Houdini, procedural workflows, simulation technologies, and industry best practices, evaluating opportunities to improve the studio's technical capabilities.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience as a Houdini Technical Director, Pipeline TD, or similar technical role in a high-end VFX, Animation, or hybrid production environment.
• Expert knowledge of Houdini, including procedural modeling, simulations, SOPs, DOPs, LOPs/Solaris, COPs, HDAs, and production pipeline development with a heavy focus/comprehension of lighting and rendering through Arnold.
• Strong proficiency with Python, VEX, and HScript, with experience developing custom procedural tools, automation, and pipeline integrations.
• Deep understanding of film production pipelines and how Houdini integrates with FX, animation, lighting, compositing, and rendering workflows.
• Experience building scalable, production-ready tools that support complex film-quality workflows.
• Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills with a proven ability to diagnose and resolve production issues quickly and effectively.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills with the ability to balance production support alongside ongoing tool development.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to clearly explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical artists.
• Experience with Git, Rez, and other related version control systems and environment & package managers with collaborative development practices.
• Use of unittest or similar framework testing to ensure no disruptions in active/current scripts.
• Experience working with cloud-based rendering, distributed simulations, or scalable compute environments.
• In-depth knowledge of color management, geometry caching, and asset publishing systems.
• Experience with ShotGrid (Flow Production Tracking) management software's API
• Efficiency and experience with Linux systems and shell scripting.
• An iterative mindset and willingness to receive and implement constructive feedback.

Preferred Qualifications:

• PySide, PyQT, or QT Designer experience is preferred.
• Experience developing procedural workflows for environments, destruction, particles, crowds, vegetation, terrain generation, or large-scale simulations is advantageous.
• C++ and OpenCL experience is great to have.
• Familiarity with Unreal Engine and developing Houdini workflows using Houdini Engine.
• Experience with Maya, Nuke, and modern cross-application pipeline development.
• Understanding of rendering workflows using Karma, RenderMan, Redshift, or similar renderers.
• Familiarity with motion capture, photogrammetry, Gaussian splatting, or virtual production workflows is a plus.
• Previous experience collaborating with SideFX on support tickets, feature requests, or beta programs is highly desirable.