Presentation

Senior Rendering Developer
·
SideFX
·
Toronto
Event Type
Job Posting
TimeMonday, 9 August 20217am - 8am PDT
Location
DescriptionPosition Overview

SideFX is seeking an exceptional software developer to join its Toronto-based rendering R&D team. If you know how to optimally importance sample an environment map, know how to vectorize code for GGX evaluation, and can intersect rays with a motion blurred OpenVDB primitive, then this might be the position you're looking for. As a member of the rendering group, you will be working with some of the brightest minds in the industry and interacting with an outstanding artist community. Our rendering experts have received prestigious industry awards, including a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the innovations made to our renderer, Mantra. Everyone here shares a drive for excellence and a passion for innovation in rendering technology. Providing digital artists with the most advanced tools for their craft is, and has always been, our single focus.

*Note: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to keep all of our employees and candidates safe, SideFX is hiring and onboarding remotely

Key Duties and Responsibilities*
-Develop, maintain and provide support for the two primary Houdini off-line renderers, Karma CPU and XPU.
-Research and develop new rendering algorithms for off-line and real-time rendering.
-Collaborate with other R&D staff, technical directors and artists to ensure the rendering technology will provide the best solutions for the demands of production rendering.
-Other duties as assigned

*Adjustments will be made to enable duties & responsibilities to be met working remotely considering the current Covid-19 pandemic situation.

Required Skills and Experience
-Computer Science degree or equivalent
-Strong knowledge of C++ programming in a multi-threaded environment
-Leading-edge rendering R&D expertise
-A deep understanding of rendering technologies, such as:
-Light transport
-Importance sampling
-Volume Rendering
-Geometric processing (subdivision algorithms, curve rendering etc.)
-A thorough understanding of shading languages, including compiler technologies like LLVM
-History of delivering innovative, robust and scalable code
-Ability to learn independently, use solid judgement and develop at a fast pace
-Extensive experience in algorithm optimization for memory and performance
-Uncanny ability to uncover and remove bugs in a large software base
-Knowledge of GPU rendering algorithms, including OpenCL or CUDA
-Excellent verbal and written communication

Bonus Skills
-Experience with interactive algorithms (IPR) and stereoscopic rendering
-Familiarity with Houdini, USD/Hydra, MaterialX and the VEX shading language
-Advanced shader writing experience
-Familiarity with compiler optimization techniques
-Knowledge of Python

Sample R&D Projects
-Implement core rendering systems with a focus on production viability and performance
-Research solutions for efficient stereoscopic rendering
-Explore procedural technologies for large data rendering
-Design a layered material library, complete with physically realistic models for common surface types
-Optimize rendering of motion blur for RBD simulations
-Add user control to tracing of various light paths
-Bind volume primitive representations to the VEX shading language
-Optimize opacity evaluation for highly transparent scenes
-Optimize threaded evaluation of texture maps
-Extend the VEX shading language to support new constructs
-Improve the usability of the rendering environment in Houdini
-Explore avenues for hardware rendering

Company Profile

For over thirty years, SideFX has been providing artists with procedural 3D animation and visual effects tools designed to create the highest-quality cinematic results. We are passionate about what our customers do because our roots are in production, both as artists and as pioneering technical innovators.

SideFX has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Science multiple times - including with an Oscar® - for the development of our Houdini software, and its breakthrough procedural-based technology.

Houdini is used by the world’s top film, TV, and game studios to create blockbuster movies like Spider-Man, The Lion King and Godzilla vs. Kong, TV shows like The Crown, Game of Thrones and S.W.A.T., and video games like Ghost Recon, Far Cry and Age of Empires. Our customers include Disney Feature Animation, Pixar, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Weta Digital, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, and many more.

Visit https://www.sidefx.com/careers/ for a full list of our current job openings.

Location
Our transit-friendly head office location, directly adjacent to Union Station in the heart of downtown Toronto, is open-concept with a relaxed style that includes, casual dress, and wraparound views from the 14th floor.

Toronto office; Other locations will be considered within our company’s possibilities.

SideFX is committed to inclusion and diversity. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply. Accommodation will be provided to candidates with disabilities, upon request.