Senior Manager – Cinematics TD (SFD / Cinematics)

Responsibilities

• Priorities can often change in a fast-paced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:
• Leadership & Team Management
• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Technical Directors supporting multiple concurrent productions
• Establish clear priorities, resource allocation, and career development plans for TD team members
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, customer service, collaboration, accountability
• Recruit, onboard, and retain high-performing technical talent
• Production Technology and Support
• Partner with Production Managers, Producers, Supervisors, and Department Leads to understand project priorities and technical needs
• Ensure timely and effective technical support for artists across all departments
• Provide strategic guidance on pipeline architecture, DCC integrations, automation, asset management, rendering, and production infrastructure
• Cook up TD resources across productions to balance workload and address critical production challenges
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex production and pipeline issues
• Identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and recurring production pain points, then implement scalable solutions
• Establish best practices and standards for production support and technical troubleshooting

Requirements

• Minimum 10+ years of experience in animation, VFX, game cinematics, or related digital content production environments
• Minimum 2+ years of experience managing technical teams, including Technical Directors, Pipeline TDs, Production Engineers, or similar roles
• Proven experience supporting artists and productions in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of end-to-end animation and VFX production pipelines, including Asset creation and management, Rigging and character workflows, Animation pipelines, Simulation and FX workflows, Lighting and rendering, Production publishing and delivery
• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management abilities. Experience partnering effectively with Production, Department Supervisors, and Engineering teams
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to balance immediate production needs and long-term technical strategy
• Working knowledge of modern DCC applications such as Maya, Houdini, Katana, Nuke, or equivalent production tools
• Demonstrated understanding of current technology trends, advanced creative-production tools, and their practical applications within modern content development pipelines

Skills

• Experience leading TD organizations supporting multiple simultaneous productions
• Background or working knowledge using Universal Scene Description (USD) workflows in production pipelines
• Experience with cloud-based production workflows and render infrastructure
• Knowledge of asset management systems, production tracking platforms, and workflow orchestration tools
• A definite plus - Experience evaluating or implementing next-generation workflow enhancements that improve content creation, optimize production processes, or support cross-team collaboration
• Experience managing organizational change and technology adoption initiatives