Director, Core Engineering

About The Walt Disney Company

The Software R&D Core team designs and develops foundational libraries and technologies used by software engineers across Pixar and the broader industry to build high performance graphics applications. These technologies include USD, Hydra, Storm, our proprietary rigging engine, and our in-house application framework. The Core team also includes our UX design team which drives user experience for our proprietary software.

The Director of Core Engineering sets the strategy and execution plans for the Core team in alignment with both short-term and long-term studio priorities. They oversee Team Leads to directly influence the design and evolution of proprietary software solutions supporting and empowering production. This role also maintains relationships with other groups and teams within Software R&D, Systems, Render Man and various production departments and engineering teams within Disney for technical collaboration and distills incoming feedback into a clear direction and priorities for their Group.

The Director of Core oversees key external-facing technologies such as USD, Hydra, Open Exec and Open Subdiv and is a driver of collaboration with industry partners.

• Leads a group of high-performing engineers to identify and deliver foundational technologies enabling novel and innovative tools and workflows
• Collaborates with the VP of Software R&D, Directors of Engineering, Engineering Team Leads, and key Production partners to help develop the vision and long-term strategy for the Tools group
• Interfaces and collaborates with industry partners regarding USD, Hydra, Open Exec and Open Subdiv, delivering open-source technologies with industry-wide impact
• Leads teams to plan and deliver against production driven roadmaps, both in quality and quantity, in a sustainable way, balancing priorities from a diverse set of stakeholders
• Collaborates with technical leads and project managers in Studio Tools, Systems, Render Man and Production to align goals and priorities, identifying and negotiating cross-team dependencies, facilitating a cohesive, harmonious team dynamic
• Initiates, implements and evangelizes engineering practices to build high quality software in a sustainable way
• Directly manages a high performance group of team leads, providing technical oversight, promoting collaboration across teams and helping guide recruiting, personnel management and career development
• Builds a diverse, inclusive, fair, collaborative, and dynamic environment

• BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent
• 10+ years of industry experience (as an engineer or engineering lead)
• 5+ years of experience managing or leading a development team
• Strong working knowledge of modern software development methodologies and design patterns and experience leading significant software projects/products
• Demonstrated success building world class software
• Expertise in C++ and Python
• Practical knowledge of commercial software used in production and/or for software development
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

The hiring range for this position in Emeryville is $ to $ 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.

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