Staff Software Engineer

Since the creation of our studio over a century ago, WDAS has pioneered animation technologies to empower film-makers to tell amazing stories.   

We are seeking an experienced and highly organized Staff Software Engineer to lead and contribute to cross-functional initiatives centered around emerging technologies within Walt Disney Animation’s Production Technology team. We are looking for a forward-thinking individual contributor to drive the design and implementation of ML and AI-powered solutions and tools across our production pipeline. This role balances strategic leadership, technical excellence, and hands-on development—driving solutions that enhance artist workflows, production efficiency, and creative possibility. This role is highly collaborative, and reports to the Director of Production Technology. 

As a company, we are committed to exploring emerging technologies, in responsible ways that respect the unique role of human creativity and seek to enrich our stories, experiences, and empower us to do our best work every day.

Responsibilities

Architecture Focus

• Partner with Production Technology leads and architects to build advanced applications and intelligent systems and tools that enhance efficiency and creativity across the production pipeline.

• In partnership with Production Technology Architecture Leads, provide technical guidance of architectural designs, ensuring consistency, sustainability, and scalability in line with studio and production goals.

• Develop tool prototypes, service infrastructure, and integrate ML models into production-facing systems prioritized by cross-functional studio leadership.

• Ensure cohesion across tools and systems, supporting a seamless pipeline and integrated user experience.

AI/ML Development

• Support the design and implementation of end-to-end ML pipelines, including data collection, model training, and deployment strategies. 

• Leverage machine learning models in conjunction with Production DCC tools (e.g., Maya, Houdini, Nuke) through robust APIs and scalable service layers. 

• Apply techniques such as fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and model adaptation using foundation models and LLMs. 

• Work with generative models—including diffusion and autoregressive architectures—for image and video generation. 

• Stay up to date with the latest research and trends in computer vision, emerging technologies, generative AI, and machine learning to identify opportunities for innovation in production workflows. 

• Champion ethical development practices by prioritizing transparency, fairness, and artist-centric design in all tools and systems. 

Collaboration & Partnerships

• Collaborate with Architecture Leads, Project Managers, and developers to identify key architectural components and development needs.

• Brainstorm with other developers to contribute meaningfully and grow their impact in the emerging technology space, whilst demonstrating exemplary communication and team-oriented skills.

• Partner closely with stakeholders across studio and show teams, including Heads of Workflow, Disney Research and Studio Lab, to implement and deploy production prioritized solutions.

• Translate creative needs into technical solutions, ensuring that tools are intuitive, scalable, and production-ready.

• Align development efforts with other Production Technology teams, to ensure clean integration into existing pipelines and workflows.

Key Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Engineering, or related field.

• 7+ years of software development experience, with 3+ years in senior technical roles focused on emerging technologies.

• Deep experience with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) and deployment of production-grade systems.

• Experience in building and maintaining MLOps pipelines for continuous integration, delivery, and monitoring of ML models.

• Fluency in Python and C++, and experience working within complex, multi-tool production pipelines.

• Strong background in architectural design, system integration, and balancing immediate needs with long-term vision.

Bonus Qualifications

• Knowledge of USD workflows, real-time engines (e.g., Unreal), or ML acceleration frameworks (e.g., TensorRT, ONNX).

• Expertise in generative models, including diffusion models, VAEs, or GANs, and their application to visual content creation.

• Experience with Neural Style Transfer and other Emerging Technology Techniques.

• Contributions to recent animation research or open-source projects

• Experience in high-volume production environments, such as feature animation.

The hiring range for this position in British Columbia, Canada is C$135,000 to C$181,000 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other variable pay or benefits, may be offered dependent on the level and position offered.