Blender Pipeline Technical Specialist

About us

We are a creative entertainment company based in Sydney. We make IP-driven products that fans love, spanning animation, consumer products, publishing, games and licensing. Technology sits at the core of how we work, with dedicated technical owners driving the tools and pipelines behind our productions.

The opportunity

This is a hands-on build. Our 3D division is exploring Blender as part of a focused, fixed-term project to evaluate how it could fit into our production workflows. This is a defined test-and-validation engagement with a clear start and end. Working alongside our project lead, you will do the bulk of the practical work of standing up a Blender production pipeline: building it out, running the tests, and documenting how it all fits together. There is no legacy Blender pipeline here. You are helping build it from scratch.

This is a contract role for the duration of the project. It is scoped to the evaluation phase and is not a permanent staff position. What it offers is deep, hands-on involvement in a build-from-scratch pipeline on work that matters to the whole studio.

The role

Your job is to do the majority of the hands-on delivery within that direction: the setup, the testing, and the documentation that the project runs on. You will bring the deep Blender expertise the in-house team does not have, and turn the plan into a working, tested, well-documented pipeline.

What you will do

Build the pipeline. Stand up the Blender production pipeline and its interfacing tools with the project lead, so a shot moves cleanly from Maya animation export through to final render. You do the majority of the hands-on build.

Run the testing. Set up test scenes, materials, and characters, and run the tests that validate each workflow against its acceptance criteria, feeding results back to the project lead and department leads.

Own the documentation. Write up the pipeline, the tooling, and the workflows so the department leads can author their onboarding guides and the studio can pick the work up after the contract ends.

Day to day you will

• Build the Blender test pipeline and its interfacing tools with the project lead, primarily through Blender's Python API

• Design and test production data handoffs between Maya and Blender

• Set up test scenes, material set-ups, and character configurations, and run the workflow tests

• Work with 3D artists, leads, and production planning to translate pain points into tooling

• Document the pipeline and support department leads as they author their onboarding guides

• Help triage the pain-point register, classifying issues as fixable in Blender, fixable in pipeline, or accepted

• Pick up pipeline work when the in-house team is pulled onto urgent studio tasks

Who we are looking for

You are an experienced pipeline technical director who has built and migrated production pipelines before, not just worked within them. You have stood up pipeline infrastructure from scratch, and you have moved a studio or a team from one setup to another, so you know where migrations break and how to de-risk them. You have genuine, current Blender expertise and you understand the difference between scripting around a problem and building durable pipeline infrastructure.

You are happy doing the hands-on delivery. You take direction from a project lead and then run with it, working steadily with limited day-to-day supervision, and you stay effective when studio priorities pull the in-house team onto other work. You document thoroughly and hand over cleanly at the end of the engagement.

Essential experience and skills

• Proven experience building production pipelines from the ground up, not only operating or extending existing ones

• Hands-on experience migrating a studio or team pipeline between tools or DCCs, with an understanding of where migrations fail and how to de-risk them

• Senior-level technical direction experience in a VFX, animation, or games production pipeline

• Deep, current Blender experience, including its tooling, data model, and day-to-day production use

• Strong Python development skills, with a track record of building production tools and extending Blender through its Python API

• Practical experience with Open Universal Scene Description (USD) and Alembic interchange, including round-tripping data between DCCs

• Familiarity with Cycles and EEVEE render setup and configuration

• Proven ability to work with artists and production staff to translate needs into working tools

• Strong documentation skills, comfortable writing up pipelines and workflows for others to follow

Desirable

• Experience interfacing Blender with Maya and Houdini in a production setting

• Prior experience specifically migrating off a game engine (Unreal or Unity) to a DCC-based pipeline

• Exposure to OCIO and ACES colour management across a pipeline

• Familiarity with production tracking integration, ideally Autodesk Flow

What we offer

• Competitive salary and package commensurate with experience

• A flexible environment with opportunities for hybrid work.

• A fun office environment where individual input is valued.

• Regular work functions and free entry to conventions and events.

• Close to public transport in the heart of Parramatta and Melbourne CBD.

• Regular company breakfasts/lunches.

• A diverse team that values independent input and career development.

• Access to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), confidential mental health and well being support, for you and your family

Our values

Glitch Productions has an art-first mindset. Regardless of which team we’re in, every single team member’s core mission is to create the best art possible, and delight our audience that has given us so much. We achieve this mission through our values:

Passion: First and foremost, every team member has a passion for the work we do and why we do it. It’s what allows us to contribute our creative energy, pitch new concepts, and give everything we make a personal touch that resonates with our fans.

Innovation: From cobbling together sets in a living room, to inventing new pipelines using breakthrough technology, we have always had a focus on innovation and new ideas. We always try to push the boundaries of our industry and keep things fresh and exciting for both the team and our audience.

Teamwork: Animation takes a big team of incredibly talented people and everyone is always ready to pitch in and lend a hand. We believe that our diversity and range of skills are what allows us to create works none of us could do on our own.

Integrity: Our integrity is the heart of our core mission. It’s what allows us to do right for our projects and for each other.

At Glitch Productions, we’re passionate about fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects our values as a creative studio.

We hire based on skills, passion and potential, and celebrate the diverse perspectives that make our team stronger. We welcome people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, educational backgrounds, abilities, and experiences.

Simply put, if you’re a good person and share our passion for animation, we want to hear from you!