Pipeline Engineer

At LAIKA, we craft breathtaking stopmotion films by blending timeless artistic techniques with innovative technology. As a Pipeline Engineer on the Studio Pipeline team, you’ll help design, build, and maintain the pipeline and workflow tools that empower artists and production teams throughout the creative process.

In this role, you’ll provide hands‑on pipeline support and troubleshoot a wide range of editorial and production‑tracking challenges across every stage of our filmmaking process. You’ll report to the Studio Pipeline Sr. Manager and collaborate closely with other engineers and development teams, as well as artists and production managers in the fabrication
, stage
, VFX
, and editorial departments.

To thrive in this role, you bring strong problem‑solving skills, clear communication, and a collaborative mindset. You’re organized, adaptable, and comfortable managing multiple priorities. You approach challenges with curiosity and initiative, exercise sound judgment, and help foster a positive and inclusive team culture.

If you love blending art and technology, enjoy working closely with creative collaborators, and want to contribute to one of the industry’s most visionary studios, we’d love to hear from you.

• Develop and maintain production‑tracking and asset‑management tools including CLI, PyQt/PySide, and web‑based applications.
• Write scalable, extensible, and performant code that aligns with modern development principles.
• Collaborate with artists, production staff, and developers to gather requirements and deliver reliable, user‑friendly solutions.
• Provide user support for FlowPT (Shot Grid), production tools, and other pipeline‑related workflows, diagnosing and resolving issues efficiently.
• Contribute to the improvement of existing pipeline systems through bug fixes, performance optimizations, refactoring, and feature enhancements.
• Support multi‑OS production environments including macOS, Windows, and Linux.
• Participate in code reviews and follow best practices for source control, deployment, and documentation.
• Contribute to internal training and user guides to help artists and production teams better understand tools and workflows.

• 2‑4 years of experience developing workflow tools and services for production tracking, asset management, pipeline engineering, or technical support in animation, VFX, or game development.
• Experience with FlowPT (Shot Grid) including its Python and REST APIs, UI framework, and automation capabilities.
• Solid understanding of Git source control branching strategies.
• Experience with modern web technologies such as Django, Flask, React, or Node.js, and familiarity with relational databases (e.g., Postgre
  
  SQL).
• Familiarity with common software design patterns and principles including OOP, SOLID, and MVC.
• Familiarity with agile development methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) with a track record of delivering effective, maintainable software on time and within scope.
• Proficiency with common developer tools including Visual Studio Code, Postman, and similar toolsets.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with the ability to work effectively across technical and creative teams.

• Hands‑on experience with FlowPT (Shot Grid) administration, AMIs, and custom page authoring.
• Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (Docker, Kubernetes, Git Lab Runners, Jenkins) to streamline software delivery and stability.
• Background in developing or integrating server‑side components with AWS, Azure, or other cloud‑native services.
• Experience developing in Rust and React, particularly for building performant, maintainable, and scalable production tools or services.
• Familiarity with distributed or service‑oriented pipeline architectures and orchestration frameworks supporting scalable production workflows.
• Understanding of observability and Dev Ops practices including monitoring, logging, and alerting to maintain pipeline reliability.
• Passion for creative collaboration, continuous learning, and improving the artist and production experience through thoughtful technical design.

The physical demands and work…