Overview
POSITION PURPOSE
Your position as a Software Engineer & Data Analyst is vital to Image Engine. Your intuition and experience presenting data to both technical and non-technical users empowers you to build tools and interfaces that serve data-driven decision making at all levels of VFX production.
Reporting to the Software Engineering Supervisor, you will design, develop, and maintain end-to-end data gathering, analysis, and visualization tools. You will build intuitive, visual end-user experiences that directly impact the way we approach VFX. You will have significant responsibility and influence in shaping Image Engine’s approach to data analytics. Your clients will be our internal Producers, VFX Supervisors, Art/Content Supervisors, along with Finance & various Senior Managers.
Projects may include data-driven bidding, progress tracking, and projection tools for VFX Producers; software & hardware analytics on our ~50k vCPU “private cloud” to drive purchase decisions, or to inform CG workflow changes; Render cost predictions to drive storage decisions on our 4 petabyte local storage or to detect “cloud-burst” requirements and identify cloud-capable render jobs.
Your passion, talent, and ideas will help us bring VFX at Image Engine to the next level of efficiency and performance.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Design, implement, and support a mixture of proprietary, open-source, and third-party software for data gathering, warehousing, transformation, analysis, and visualization
Collaborate with producers, supervisors, and managers to determine analytics & visualization needs for current and future productions
Create data visualizations that are intuitive & informative for non-technical audiences
Identify and optimize bottlenecks in data gathering & analytics algorithms and workflows
Document, test, and debug tools to ensure they meet production requirements
Provide technical support, training, and tutorials to Production Staff, Supervisors, and Managers
Stay up-to-date with industry trends for data analytics & visualization
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
A university degree in Computer Science, Math, Statistics, Engineering, or a related field
2 or more years industry experience developing data warehousing, analysis, and visualization tools, or a postgraduate degree (MSc, PhD) with a strong focus on information visualization
Master’s in Computer Science or a related field an asset
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
Technical skills
Experience writing software in Python required
Proficiency with SQL and elasticsearch required
Keen data sense backed by strong data visualization skills
Experience building ETLs and data pipelines within a sandboxed Linux environment
Working knowledge of DevOps practices, CI/CD, Git and GitHub
Experience with Kibana, Grafana, ReDash, or Knime an asset
Familiarity with VFX production workflows & data formats an asset
Core skills
Team oriented with good communication skills, able to work closely with non-technical coworkers
Preference for a structured work environment, with clearly outlined priorities
Expectation of upfront planning before proceeding with final implementation
Proactive with proven ability to work both independently and in a team
Ability to take direction and feedback from a supervisor or a peer
Excellent time management and communication skills
Ability to monitor and identify potential inefficiencies with production workflows
Excellent troubleshooting and debugging skills
Ability to adapt quickly to new technologies and applications
Willingness to extend beyond your current specializations to help a larger engineering effort when required
*Candidates are required to be based in British Columbia.
