We are looking for a Senior VFX/Post Production Pipeline TD as part of a team being built in our new NxGen Studio - part hybrid VFX & AI post-production house, part R&D lab.

This is a rare opportunity to join something new, fast-growing, and genuinely pioneering with a huge brand name behind it, this will sit at the heart of Sky Creative - NxGen Studio is a bold, creatively led and technology-driven studio built for the next era of storytelling.

NxGen Studio exists to redefine how ideas are imagined and made. We bring together world-class human creativity and the transformative power of AI to unlock smarter, faster and more collaborative problem-solving - without sacrificing craft, authorship or control. By blending established production workflows with the cutting edge of AI-driven tools, we deliver originality, agility and first-class execution at scale.

As a Senior VFX / Post-Production Pipeline TD, you'll own NxGen's cloud-native backbone render, storage, identity and integrations, bridging on-prem and AWS so projects stay fast, secure and cost-efficient. You will also help shape the long-term technical direction of the NxGen pipeline and cloud infrastructure strategy, ensuring alignment with wider Sky enterprise standards and future growth plans.

We're seeking a technically sharp, AI & production-savvy Pipeline TD who thrives at the intersection of creative and technical problem-solving. You'll work closely with both technical support and production teams to build, maintain, and enhance pipeline tools that make our workflows smoother, faster, and more scalable. In addition to hands-on technical leadership, you will contribute to functional strategy, lead across complex technical teams, and help drive transformation initiatives that support NxGen's evolution at scale.

You'll be equally comfortable diving into Python code, troubleshooting Linux and Windows systems, and collaborating with creative teams to solve complex production challenges.

What you'll do:

• You will manage post production pipeline for all projects in the NxGen Studio.
• Shape and evolve pipeline strategy and long-term technical roadmaps in line with NxGen and Sky Creative objectives.
• Act as SME for all related projects and mentor/train team members and managers in new ways of working and tools.
• Lead engineers and technical specialists across disciplines, ensuring delivery standards, capability growth, and operational resilience.
• Run render orchestration (AWS Deadline Cloud), coordinate distributed rendering workflows across multiple AWS regions and Deadline Cloud render farms to optimise performance and cost efficiency.
• Influence and guide the design and configuration of workstation builds to meet production and performance requirements (AWS EC2 AMIs), and maintain licence services.
• Manage data utilisation and workflow optimisation across hybrid cloud Pixit Media storage environments to ensure efficient access and collaboration.
• Write and maintain plugins/tools for key DCCs&#59; set up CI/CD for the tooling stack.
• Establish and maintain technical standards, policies and governance frameworks across pipeline, cloud usage, and security to support the wider function.
• Harden security (IAM, VPC, secrets, network policies) aligned to Sky/Comcast standards.
• Maintain accountability for cloud infrastructure usage and associated budgets, ensuring cost transparency and optimisation.
• First-response triage for project issues&#59; RCA and permanent fixes&#59; maintain delivery SLOs.
• Contribute to transformation initiatives across NxGen, influencing stakeholders and representing the studio in cross-functional enterprise discussions where required.
• Work directly with creative teams to resolve technical challenges in active projects.
• Strong troubleshooting, problem-solving, and debugging skills in a production environment.

What you'll bring:

• Extensive experience working Pipeline/Systems in VFX/Post&#59; strong Python & Linux&#59; render managers&#59; AWS (EC2/S3/IAM/VPC).
• Solid experience managing teams to ensure delivery needs are met and collaborating with creative teams to ensure technical challenges/needs are resolved to meet the brief.
• Experience contributing to functional strategy and leading complex technical teams across multiple disciplines.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and supporting transformation initiatives beyond individual project delivery.
• Experience with remote workstations, storage/networking, security and observability.
• DCC API familiarity (e.g., Nuke, C4D, Houdini, Redshift, Resolve, After Effects, AI Tools).
• Strong working knowledge of production/content management and versioning systems (e.g. Autodesk Flow).
• Experience managing software lifecycle, production releases, version control (e.g. Git), and automated builds.
• Understanding of VFX colour pipeline, including ACES workflows.
• CI/CD and containerisation experience&#59; calm, collaborative problem-solver.
• AI-first approach to considering integration and workflows.
• An inspiring problem solver, a fixer. Keep the studio and projects running while enabling long-term scalability and enterprise alignment.