Jobs

Technical Support

1st May 2013

We are currently looking for an enthusiastic and approachable person to help maintain our desktop computer infrastructure. Applicants should be conscientious, strong in problem solving and attention to detail, work independently as well as in a team and occasionally be prepared to work flexible hours.

This is a desktop support position and an ideal skill set will include:

* An good understanding of the Linux desktop operating system. In addition, a working knowledge of Windows and OSX would be an advantage.
* General computer knowledge (including networking, applications, hardware)
* Great customer service
* Experience working in an IT support role (eg on a helpdesk or as a technician)
* A tertiary or industry IT qualification
* A film industry background (either onset or post-production) would also be viewed favourably.

All candidates must hold New Zealand or Australian residency.

Please send your resume and cover letter to recruitment@wetafx.co.nz and complete the technical online questionnaire at www.wetadigital.com/jobs. Please also save cover letter & resume in pdf format, saving your own name within the filename, for our easy reference.

IT Runner

1st May 2013

We are currently looking for an enthusiastic and approachable person to join our Technical Support team as a Runner - tasks include monitor calibrations, delivery of stock between facilities, moving and setting up workstations, and some data entry.

Applicants should be conscientious, motivated, able to work independently and occasionally be prepared to work flexible hours.
While the following skills will be beneficial to an application, this is an entry level position:

* Full New Zealand Drivers License (required)
* An understanding of the Linux desktop operating system. In addition, experience supporting Windows and OSX would be an advantage.
* Great customer service
* General computer knowledge (including networking, applications, hardware)

Please send your resume to recruitment@wetafx.co.nz and complete the technical online questionnaire at www.wetadigital.com/jobs

Shader TD

26th April 2013

Weta Digital is currently looking for Shader TDs:

Candidates will ideally have at least 3 years of feature film experience and display the following attributes:

- Strong lookdev skills both artistically and technically with great experience and understanding of shading, rendering, colour, photography etc
- Experience in shading assets/environments for photoreal feature film
- The ability to come up with creative, efficient rendering solutions for a wide variety of assets including fur, natural phenomena, hard surface etc
- Texturing/Lighting experience
- Familiarity with Maya and Linux.
- Experience with all aspects of the rendering pipeline.
- Strong organisational skills.
- Strong communication and task management skill, and ready to take more responsibility and leadership of a group of people from different departments.

Please complete the online questionnaire at www.wetadigital.com/jobs
(including any online showreel links you have available) and send your resume to us at: recruitment@wetafx.co.nz

Shader Writer

26th April 2013

Weta Digital is currently looking for Shader Writers:

Candidates will ideally have at least 3 years of feature film experience and display the following attributes:

- Strong shader writing skills and the ability to come up with creative, efficient rendering solutions
- Solid understanding of mathematics, optics, colour, light transport, physically based shading etc
- Experience in shading assets/environments/effects for photoreal feature film.
- Texturing/Lighting experience
- Familiarity with Maya and Linux.
- Experience with all aspects of the rendering pipeline.
- C++ dso/shadeop experience a plus.
- Strong organisational skills.
- Ability to work as part of a diverse team

Please complete the online questionnaire at www.wetadigital.com/jobs
(including any online showreel links you have available) and send your resume to us at: recruitment@wetafx.co.nz

Animators

18th April 2013

Weta Digital is now hiring for Animators.

Candidates should have at least 3 years of feature film experience, be available for an asap start and display the following:

* Experience in camera and staging shots
* Character and creature animation reels are both welcome. The preference being on individuals who take their animation to the high level of polish required by a photo-realistic medium
* A maya and linux background
* Ability to brainstorm and debug technical problems you may come across.
* A solid foundation in realistic facial animation is a plus

Please complete the online questionnaire at www.wetadigital.com/jobs (including any online showreel links you have available) and send your resume to us at: recruitment@wetafx.co.nz

Motion Editors & Senior Motion Editors

11th April 2013

The Weta Digital Motion Capture Department is looking for Motion Editors & Senior Motion Editors, with a passion for motion capture technology and it's application in cutting edge film-making:

Motion Editor requirements are:

* Primarily responsible for the retargeting and editing of body motion capture data.
* Should be proficient in the use of Nuance and/or Maya.
* Experience with Motionbuilder and/or Giant software a plus.

All applicants should demonstrate experience in the motion-capture field, have a high level of attention to detail and good communication skills. Non NZ-resident applicants should have a minimum 3 years experience in feature film production.

Please fill out our online questionnaire at www.wetadigital.com/jobs (including any online showreel links available) and send your resume through to recruitment@wetafx.co.nz.

Database Administrator

4th April 2013

Weta Digital are now looking for a Database Administrator.

Responsibilities include:
- Sizing, Provisioning and Configuration
- Monitoring
- Upgrades
- Schema Changes
- Replication
- SQL Consultation
- Troubleshooting and Third Level Support

Large scale relational databases are used throughout Weta Digital and are a critical part of the Company's IT infrastructure. The DBA is responsible for all aspects of these databases' administration. Our databases are used for:

- Production Tracking
- Render Scheduling and Error Reporting
- Disk Space Allocation and Reporting
- Statistics and Data Warehousing
- Asset Libraries
- Mail and Calendering
- Software Project Management
- Motion Capture

Most of these databases are company wide and mission critical. Many are required to scale to millions – or in some cases billions – of transactions per day. We require a DBA with solid scripting experience in Perl and Python. Alongside these scripting skills, we'd be very interested to hear from DBAs who've run databases on NAS, Flash and FIO storage on physical hardware and from within VM guests. We'd be very interested to hear from candidates who – additionally – have significant LDAP experience.

While strong technical skills are essential, personal qualities will be equally important. The DBA is often required to coach and mentor developers in the use of SQL – helping them to troubleshoot queries or improve performance. We're looking for an approachable, cautious and highly organized individual. Crucially, you're the kind of person who would enjoy working in an Agile environment to take responsibility for – and shape the future of – one of Weta Digitals core IT components.

Highly Desirable Skills:
- MySQL Installation, Configuration and Administration
- Advanced SQL and Database Optimization
- MySQL Replication
- Perl
- Python
- LDAP
- Linux Systems Administration
- Postgres Administration
- CouchDB Administration

Bonus Skills:
- LDAP
- Commvault
- MS SQL Server
- VMWare

Desirable Experience:
- At least two years prior experience in a DBA role and at least five years experience as an analyst programmer or a similar SQL-heavy role.
- High Availability and Fail-over Solutions
- Data Warehousing
- Performing Upgrades
- Managing Backups and Recoveries – especially if in conjunction with Commvault.
- Working in an Agile Environment

Desirable Qualifications:
- BS/MS or equivalent knowledge and experience in Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline

Key Qualities:
- Effective communication skills: both written and oral.
- A passion for collaboration: you enjoy discussing database techniques and solutions with developers.
- A willingness to learn – and routinely use – a large number of languages and technologies.
- A talent for working with existing schemas: improving their performance and ability to scale.
- The ability to work strategically and deliver technically sound improvements with minimal downtime.

Senior Camera TD’s

26th March 2013

We are now looking for Senior Camera TDs to join our Camera Department.
Applicants must have proven Matchmove experience in a large feature-film VFX production environment and be available to start work within 2-3 months.

Must be proficient in:
- 3D Equalizer
- Maya
- Compositing packages such as Nuke or Shake
- Motion Builder experience also a bonus
- Have an understanding of linux based operating systems.

Candidates should demonstrate:
- An interest and ability to mentor artists
- Excellent communication
- Interpersonal and organizational skills
- Be a creative problem solver who is organized and critical of his or her own work.

- A minimum of 5 years matchmoving industry experience is required
- A minimum of 5 years 3D Equalizer experience is required
- Must have a willingness to learn new tools, proven ability to be detail-oriented and to work efficiently within a production environment with the ability to work under tight deadlines.

Please complete Weta's online recruitment questionnaire at: www.wetadigital.com/jobs and send your resume to recruitment@wetafx.co.nz

Production Engineer

15th March 2013

Production Engineering is responsible for designing, developing and maintaining core pipeline applications and services used by all departments throughout the company. This includes but is not limited to: Review and Dailies Pipeline, Asset Tracking Services, Software Environment Management and The Rendering Pipeline. Our systems provide the main building blocks that are essential for supporting and tracking all processes involved with rendering and data creation.

Weta Digital has one of the largest render farms in the world, consisting of over 40,000+ cores and a few petabytes of storage to manage. Production Engineering maintains the main software interfaces responsible for managing processes and tracking data generated in this area. Scalability is a major requirement.

Required Skills:

- BS/MS or equivalent in Computer Science, or related fields with at least 3 years experience
- Solid experience with Python or Perl
- Shell scripting (csh, bash, zsh)
- GUI frameworks (PyQt, PySide)
- Git or Subversion source control experience
- Experience developing with MySQL or PostgreSQL

Bonus:

- General understanding of NoSQL systems (CouchDB, Cassandra, Redis)
- REST and HTTP web services
- Experience with AMQP based systems (RabbitMQ)
- Exposure to Linux/KDE and corresponding open-source tools
- Maya API knowledge
- C, C++, Qt, Java

Information Systems Application Developer

19th February 2013

Responsibilities include:

- Developing new web applications
- Developing mac applications
- Maintaining existing web and mac applications
- Understanding internal customer requirements
- Database development, writing queries, optimising queries

The Weta Digital Information Systems teams designs, implements, codes, manages and supports all tools used for production tracking across the entire facility.

Most of those tools are written in Python, Pylons using MySQL and there are a few large mac applications (Objective C). The tools must support the complex nature of the VFX pipeline whilst also providing a performant and intuitive experience for all of our Users – 1100 across the entire facility. There are some tools that are based on older technology – i.e. perl etc. These are being phased out. We are moving into iOS development as well.

We are looking for an experienced software engineer to join the team. Ideally that person would have a python and/or Objective C background but we are also interested in meeting people with a Microsoft .NET, Java, C++ backgrounds as well.

We are looking for someone smart, with a passion for software engineering, web applications, communication tools, new technologies, and providing perfect solutions to happy customers.

Ideally you will be interested in developing web applications and mac applications. You’ll have some experience in writing SQL with optimization in mind – the data sources are huge and ever changing. You should be passionate about utilizing web technologies to produce extraordinary information management and communication tools in a fast-paced environment, and learning about our unique environment and requirements.

In return, you'll have the opportunity to work with talented software engineers providing industry-leading tools within the visual effects and film arena. You will work with passionate, dedicated visual effects artists and technicians in a company dedicated to innovation and excellence.

If this sounds like you, and you have the skills / experience listed below, please get in touch!

Key Skills:
- Python, Objective C, Microsoft .Net experience (C# preferred), or Java
- MS SQL, MySQL or simular enterprise level database server experience
- CSS, HTML, and Javascript
- Exceptional communication skills both written and oral
- Ability to work under pressure
- An eye for detail

Nice to Have:
- Pylons, or experience with MVC web framework
- UI or web design experience
- Understanding of visual effects technologies, terminology or pipelines.
- iOS development experience

Desirable Qualifications:
- BS/MS or equivalent knowledge and experience in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Engineering or equivalent

Desirable Experience:
- At least 4 years prior experience in a similar development role

Key Qualities:
- Exceptional communication skills, solutions oriented, friendly and personable
- Time and priorities management aptitude
- Analytical disposition, proactive
- A natural problem solver

Production Engineering Coordinator

11th February 2013

Weta Digital is currently seeking a Production Engineering Coordinator for our Wellington based studio.

Production Engineering is responsible for designing, developing and maintaining core pipeline infrastructure to support rendering and data creation across the company.

You will work with the Production Engineering Lead and R&D Producer to coordinate software development project activities for multiple projects including big picture scheduling, detailed task tracking, meeting notes and follow ups. You will also be responsible for ensuring the smooth day-to-day running of the department

To be considered for this role candidates will need;

- 2-4 years experience in project management for software development
- Excellent organizational and communication skills
- A proven track record of successfully facilitating the work of software developers
- The ability to multi-task and respond quickly and calmly in a fast-paced and very demanding atmosphere
- Working knowledge of tools for scheduling and tracking like Microsoft Excel, MS Project, Shotgun, Redmine, Jira, etc.

Additionally, the ideal candidate will have:

- Previous experience working with VFX pipelines in a production environment, preferably for feature films
- A degree or strong background in computer science
- Knowledge of C++, Python, MySQL, or Linux
- Experience implementing Agile techniques

Weta Digital has been responsible for some of the most memorable VFX projects brought to screen in recent years. The environment is incredibly fast-paced and very demanding - to thrive you need to be fully prepared for the scale of the work we do and totally up for a new challenge!

Please note: All candidates must be eligible to work in New Zealand.

If you would like to register your interest for this Production role please complete Weta Digital's online recruitment questionnaire at: www.wetadigital.com/jobs and forward your resume to us at recruitment@wetafx.co.nz

Senior Rendering Researcher at Weta Digital

1st February 2013

The research group at Weta Digital is seeking a senior rendering researcher/engineer to take a leading role in the development of rendering technology at Weta Digital. A deep understanding of a wide range of rendering technologies is required, such as light transport, importance sampling, volume rendering, realistic material models, shading, and geometry processing. The ideal candidate will have extensive software engineering expertise, proven research contributions, and project leadership experience.

Responsibilities
- Research and develop new rendering algorithms, such as light transport (path tracing with importance sampling), volume rendering, etc.
- Design and implement physically realistic material models for hair, skin, and other materials using multi-layer BSDFs, importance sampling, and subsurface scattering.
- Adapt the latest research results into practical, production-quality code.
- Implement core rendering systems with a focus on high performance, multi threading, scalability, and robustness.
- Analyse and optimize system performance.
- Improve and maintain existing code to improve quality, reliability, and maintainability.
- Proactively test new and existing features to ensure the highest levels of quality.
- Provide hands-on user support. Find and fix bugs. Author high quality internal and end-user documentation.
- Share senior project leadership responsibilities, such as planning and tracking development tasks, engaging with users, and collaborating with other departments.

Required Qualifications
- Masters or Ph.D. in Computer Science
- 6 years of industry software engineering experience.
- World-class rendering research expertise.
- A solid foundation in software engineering, including object-oriented programming.
- Fluency in C++ and experience with other languages such as Python.
- Extensive experience in performance analysis and optimization of highly parallel, scalable systems.
- Ability to work well on a self-directed team in a rapidly changing, deadline-oriented environment.
- A team-oriented, customer-focused, quality-obsessed mindset.

Desirable Qualifications
- GPU programming expertise (CUDA or OpenCL) and experience with interactive rendering algorithms.
- Experience in film or video game production.
- Familiarity with programming tools such as Valgrind, Vtune, git, and so on

For more information about the research group at Weta Digital, see www.wetafx.co.nz/research.

About Weta Digital
Weta Digital is an Academy Award winning visual effects company based in Wellington, New Zealand that created the visual effects for movies such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin, The Hobbit trilogy, and many others. The studio has won 5 Academy Awards for best achievement in Visual Effects, and continues to show industry leadership by starting or incubating multiple successful software products such as Massive, Mudbox and Mari.

Senior Environment Artists

30th November 2012

Weta Digital is now recruiting a small number of Senior-level Environment Look-dev Artists.

Required Skills:

- A passion for highly detailed work on natural environments and hard-surface assets
- Experience leading a team
- Experience in shading/look-development of large scale environments
- Experience with Mari preferred
- Advanced Photoshop skills
- Maya/Linux experience preferred
- Experience working within a Renderman environment
- Proven experience working with procedural shading techniques
- Good communication skills and ability to liaise with other departments/artists
- Enjoy working in a team and be prepared to assist Production in managing tasks
- Strong initiative and problem solving skills
- TriPlanar and camera projection skills a plus
- Some Lighting experience would also be an advantage
- Zbrush/Mudbox experience advantageous but not essential
- Renderman shader language experience a bonus.
- Scripting experience (mel, python, shell, etc) a bonus
- UV layout skills

Code Department Roles

10th October 2012

Immersed in the production environment, our internationally recognized R&D team and innovative Research group form a close partnership with artists to translate practical and foundation research, supported by our cumulative body of R&D work into award-winning results on screen. Weta works hard to foster an environment where some of the brightest minds in the industry can not only optimize their existing skills, but also continually deepen and develop their individual knowledge within a collaborative framework.

Software Developer (2D)

We are currently seeking a Software Developer focused on 2D, to work very closely with the compositing department to develop and maintain a wide range of tools and Nuke plugins to support the film compositing process.

Required Skills:

•3+ years of directly relevant experience
•A degree in Computer Science or a related subject
•Knowledge of image processing and analysis
•Good Nuke API knowledge
•Extensive knowledge of C++
•The ability to work well in a team and closely with artists
•Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Desired Skills:

•Good understanding of colour management
•Experience with the Shake C++ API
•Experience of stereo film production / stereo image processing

Software Developer

10th October 2012

We are currently looking for a Software Developer to work closely with artists and other developers to develop and maintain a wide range of tools to be used on our current and upcoming film projects.

Required Skills:

•3+ years of directly relevant experience
•A degree in Computer Science or a related subject
•Extensive knowledge of the Maya C++ API
•Extensive knowledge of C++
•Good knowledge of OpenGL
•The ability to work well in a team and closely with artists
•Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Desired Skills:

•Experience of Renderman API development
•Experience writing software for physical simulations
•Experience with CUDA or OpenCL
•Experience with QT

Software Developer (Simulation)

10th October 2012

We are currently looking for a Software Developer focused on Simulation, to work closely with artists and other developers to develop and maintain Weta's in-house simulation tools to be used on our current and upcoming film projects.

Required Skills:

•3+ years of directly relevant experience
•A degree in Computer Science, Physics or a related subject
•Strong knowledge and development experience of physical simulations
•Extensive knowledge of C++
•Experience with OpenGL
•The ability to work well in a team and closely with artists
•Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Desired Skills:

•Experience with CUDA or OpenCL
•Maya API knowledge
•Knowledge of the Renderman API

Weta Digital Research Group - Researcher Roles

10th October 2012

Weta Digital is responsible for delivering some of the most memorable CG projects brought to screen in recent years.

Our Research Group is responsible for pioneering new and improved solutions to general CG challenges and optimizing production efficiencies throughout our VFX pipeline. Through close partnership with the rest of the R&D group and collaborative working relationships with the relevant departments, we are able to develop methods and tools that improve realism, artistic control and provide elegant artist-friendly solutions that enhance the efficiency of our studio.

We are constantly looking to the horizon; the aim of the Research Group is to translate both practical and foundation research into tangible results that maintain Weta Digital’s edge and make a positive contribution to the wider industry. Within this framework, Researchers are free to explore relevant areas of interest with the opportunity to test findings and form true creative partnerships across multiple feature film projects.

Weta Digital are looking for researchers with specific expertise and interest in the following research area:

Research - SIMULATION

10th October 2012

The Simulation research group at Weta Digital is responsible for creatively researching and developing systems which will help to make the next generation of CGI intensive feature films possible, both in terms of visual fidelity as well as production efficiency, through the investigation of physical simulation techniques, methods and algorithms.

An ideal skill set will include some of the following knowledge or qualifications:

• PhD or MS in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience
• Expert knowledge of simulation methods for solids and fluids

An additional bonus would be:

• Strong C++ programming skills
• Experience with physical testing equipment, such as Instron
• Experience writing Autodesk Maya plugins
• Experience with Renderman