Software Engineer (Hair/Cloth Toolset)

At Walt Disney Animation Studios we have a deep commitment to the philosophy that creativity inspires technology, and technology inspires creativity. Engineers in our Production Technology department are charged with developing and implementing new algorithms to solve unique and challenging problems for all of our animated content. 

We are looking for a Software Engineer to join the Production Technology Hair and Cloth team. Our developers are responsible for the creation, support, and evolution of the studio’s custom tool set used for procedural creation of hairstyles, fur grooms, embroidery, and feathers, as well as tools for character effects shot work including hair and cloth simulation. We work in a very collaborative environment, interacting daily with artists who use the code we develop.

A key consideration for all of our tools is the ability to support a high degree of artistic control to achieve the precisely art-directed performances of the characters in our films. The developer filling this role could work on a variety of areas, including:

• Geometric and procedural techniques

• Design and development of intuitive user interfaces 

• Physics simulation algorithms

• High performance parallel computation

• Plus other computer graphics algorithms relevant to associated artist workflows

In this role, you will also work with production leadership, technical directors, cross-team software engineers, and researchers. In-depth understanding of both underlying mathematical foundations as well as user-facing workflow needs are qualities we seek in an ideal candidate.

Sample Projects Include

• Evolution and support of our procedural geometry tools for creating hair styles, fur grooms, embroidery, feathers, and fiber-based cloth.

• Development of our extensive set of custom geometry deformers.

• Design and development of intuitive visualizations and new interactive tools and workflows.

• Development of mathematical and geometric libraries underlying our overall tool set, e.g. collision detection/resolution, linear algebra, and simulation and optimization libraries.

• Support and extension of our cloth and hair simulation solvers and associated authoring tools, e.g. for property authoring, specification of constraints, collision interactions, etc.

• Profiling and optimization of our tools and libraries, both existing and those in design/development.

Required Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or equivalent experience.

Key Qualifications

• 3+ years experience in a professional animation/VFX, or games environment and/or comparable academic/research experience with a focus on areas related to our hair and cloth toolset

• Understanding of computer graphics foundational concepts and algorithms

• Proficiency in C++, ideally C++17 or later 

• Ability to develop and optimize algorithms for efficiency and scalability

• Familiarity working with Maya API, USD, OpenGL, and/or Houdini 

• Ability to engage with artists to understand their requirements and formulate practical solutions

• Excellent problem solving, troubleshooting, and debugging skills

• Ability to adapt and extend relevant research to production-level tools tailored to specific art-directed needs

Bonus Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Physics and/or equivalent experience.

• Strong mathematical fundamentals, such as linear algebra, PDEs, and numerical methods

• Experience with performance tuning and writing/debugging of parallel and vectorized code

• Production experience working with artists to design and implement tools

• Knowledge of the latest publications in the academic community relevant to hair and cloth

• Experience building clean interfaces using UI development toolkits (Qt)

• Working knowledge of Python

• Familiarity with GPU programming

• Experience with ML-based techniques

The hiring range for this position in California is $114,900.00-$154,100.00 per year based on a 40 hour work week. The amount of hours scheduled per week may vary based on business needs. 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 bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.