Machine Learning Artist​/Technical Director – VFX

• Full-time

Built on legacy. Driven by what’s next.

At El Ranchito, our work comes to life through the unique talent, creativity, and imagination of our people. From our studios in Madrid and Barcelona, we bring some of the biggest stories in film and television to screens everywhere through world‑class visual effects.

As part of the Pitch Black network, El Ranchito brings its distinctive creative expertise to a global community of studios, diverse talent, technology, resources, and possibilities.

Join us and help craft the moments audiences remember.

El Ranchito is looking for a Machine Learning Artist / Technical Director who combines strong visual judgement with coding and applied machine-learning skills.

Reporting to the Machine Learning Supervisor, this is a hands‑on, production‑facing role focused on using ML to solve real VFX challenges. The position sits between artistry, pipeline development and applied machine learning: understanding how high‑quality visual effects are created while having the technical ability to build, adapt and troubleshoot the tools behind them.

This is not a role focused solely on generating images with existing tools. We are looking for someone who can understand a production problem, investigate possible technical solutions, build or adapt a workflow, evaluate its limitations and help artists use it successfully on real work.

Candidates may come from any VFX department—including compositing, FX or Lighting. Professional experience as a production VFX artist or artist-facing TD is strongly preferred.

Exceptional ML candidates without a traditional VFX background may also be considered if they demonstrate outstanding technical depth, strong visual judgement and highly relevant work in image, video, 3D or other areas directly applicable to VFX production.

The role is open to candidates based in Spain.

• Professional production experience as a VFX artist or artist-facing TD in at least one department is strongly preferred.
• A strong reel, portfolio or body of work demonstrating visual judgement and technical problem-solving.
• Practical experience applying machine learning, computer vision or generative models to image, video, geometry or related media.
• Strong Python skills and experience creating maintainable production tools.
• Familiarity with Git, APIs, package and environment management, and reproducible development practices.
• Experience with an ML framework such as PyTorch or equivalent.
• A working understanding of model inference, datasets, evaluation, fine‑tuning and GPU‑based processing.
• Experience integrating tools into at least one major VFX application or production pipeline is highly valued.
• A solid understanding of production imagery, including colour, dynamic range, resolution, compositing requirements and temporal consistency.
• Strong visual judgement and the ability to respond constructively to creative direction.
• A generalist mindset and the ability to move comfortably between creative, technical and pipeline challenges.
• The ability to explain technical ideas and limitations clearly to artists, supervisors and production teams.
• Full professional fluency in spoken and written English, with confidence collaborating across international teams and time zones.
• Candidates must be based within the European Union for the duration of the role. Spain is preferred but not essential.

Candidates without a traditional VFX background may still be considered if they demonstrate an exceptional track record in relevant applied ML work, together with a strong visual portfolio and a clear understanding of the quality and control required for professional image production.

Valuable Additional Experience

• Nuke, Houdini, Maya, Blender, Unreal…