Junior Pipeline Developer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Sep 30, 2026. First seen by Alion on Sep 5, 2026.
Why This Role
This is a chance to own real tools end to end. You'll build internal tools and automation that a whole studio of creative professionals uses every day, take modules from idea to production in months rather than years, and work on modern tech - cloud infrastructure, a fast-growing AI/ML layer, and USD-based data workflows - instead of maintaining legacy code. AI is expanding quickly in this space, and this role sits right at that edge: you'll help decide how ML tooling gets built into real production workflows, not just consume it. There's a clear path to grow into deeper platform and R&D work, with senior engineers to learn from and junior developers to mentor. If you like building tools that visibly make people's work faster, you'll enjoy it here.
About FutureWorks
FutureWorks is a leading VFX and animation studio with 17+ years delivering high-quality visual effects and post production for feature films, OTT, television, and commercials. Behind the creative work is a serious software problem: hundreds of artists, terabytes of assets, and complex multi-stage workflows that all need tooling, automation, and integration to run smoothly. That's what our pipeline and R&D teams build, and it's the work this role is part of.
About the Role
We're looking for a strong Python developer to design, build, and maintain the internal tools and automation that keep our production pipeline running. In plain terms: you'll build the desktop apps, services, and automation that connect the many applications artists use, move data between stages of production, and remove manual, repetitive work.
At its core this is a software engineering role. If you write clean, well-structured Python, enjoy building tools that solve real problems for real users, and like integrating systems through their APIs, you'll do well here - whether or not you've worked in VFX or media before. The domain-specific stack (our production-tracking system, the creative applications, USD) is a niche skill set, and we're glad to train the right engineer on it. We care far more about the fundamentals that are hard to teach: Python craftsmanship, problem-solving, and a tools-builder mindset.
Requirements
What You'll Do
Design, develop, and maintain Python tools and automation for asset management, publishing, rendering, and general workflow optimization.
Build desktop tools and internal applications, and integrate Python with the applications your users work in day to day.
Diagnose and resolve complex technical issues across the pipeline.
Collaborate with artists, supervisors, and production teams to turn workflow problems into practical technical solutions.
Review code, mentor junior developers, and write clear technical, deployment, and user documentation.
Build and integrate AI/ML-assisted tooling into user workflows - for example, wiring models for tasks like image cleanup, denoising, upscaling, or asset generation into the pipeline, and building the tools around them that make them usable in production.
Contribute to R&D on emerging pipeline technology, including USD-based data workflows and cloud rendering, and help shape how new AI capabilities are adopted as the space evolves.
What We're Looking For (Required)
0-3 years of professional Python development with strong OOP fundamentals.
Demonstrable experience building internal tools, automation, or applications that other people rely on.
Experience integrating Python with a host application or platform through its API (any domain - this is a transferable skill).
Strong Git skills and comfort working across Linux and Windows.
Good working knowledge of REST APIs, JSON, YAML, XML, and databases.
Strong debugging and problem-solving ability, and a collaborative approach to working with non-technical users.
Adjacent Backgrounds Welcome
We welcome strong engineers from adjacent fields. A background in developer tools, creative or content-authoring tools, game engines, ML tooling, data platforms, desktop application development, or automation and DevOps systems maps closely to this work - VFX experience is not required to apply.
Nice to Have (Or We'll Help You Learn)
None of the below is required. Each strengthens an application, but we're glad to train a strong engineer on the ones they're missing.
UI development with PySide2 / PySide6 and Qt Designer.
Experience integrating ML models into applications or pipelines (calling model APIs, running inference in production tooling, or wiring ML services into user-facing tools) - a growing part of this role.
Experience with a production-tracking system's API (ours is ShotGrid / Flow Production Tracking and its Toolkit, SGTK) - or any comparable system you can learn from.
Python scripting or plugin development for creative / DCC applications such as Maya, Houdini, Nuke, or Katana.
Render farm systems (e.g. Deadline), Docker, CI/CD, or cloud deployments.
Perforce or advanced Git workflows.
Familiarity with USD, Alembic, OpenEXR, or OpenColorIO.
Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Software Engineering, or a related field - or equivalent practical experience. We care about what you can build, not only what's on paper.
What We Offer
Meaningful software ownership on tools used across a real production studio.
Exposure to cutting-edge technology - AI/ML tooling, cloud, and USD - and a clear path to grow into the pipeline and R&D domain.
A collaborative environment working alongside experienced engineers, artists, and R&D teams.
Real technical ownership, mentoring opportunities, and room to grow.