Job Summary

Swaybox Studios is seeking an experienced Unreal Technical Director to develop, roll out, and maintain tools and procedures that optimize real-time workflows across our VFX and Animation departments. You will have a deep understanding of film/VFX pipelines and Unreal Engine’s role within them, working closely with our teams to create intuitive solutions, improve pipeline efficiency, and address the technical needs of our artists. This role is key to ensuring that our real-time production pipeline runs smoothly and that our teams have the tools they need to deliver high-end content.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, integrate, and optimize custom tools, scripts, blueprints, and workflows within Unreal Engine to support our teams and uphold best practices within the VFX pipeline.
• Implement and support naming conventions in file and asset names that sync with our current pipeline structure and folders.
• Troubleshoot and debug technical issues related to assets, shaders, level sequences, pipeline integration, rendering, performance, and other aspects of Unreal; providing timely support and solutions.
• Create and retain detailed technical documentation, including training sessions, tool descriptions, and user guides to ensure clean and smooth adoption across the team.
• Collaborate with Supervisors and artists to understand production needs and develop real-time solutions that streamline workflows throughout the film VFX process.
• Balance development tasks with production needs, prioritizing urgent issues, while delivering long-term pipeline improvements and upgrades.
• Assist IT and pipeline developers in setting up and maintaining Perforce with our internal team and vendors.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience as a Technical Director, Pipeline TD, or similar role in a high-end VFX, Animation, or hybrid production environment.
• Strong proficiency in Python, Blueprints, and C++ scripting within Unreal Engine.
• Extensive experience with Unreal Engine (5+ preferred), including customizing and developing tools for artists, optimizing workflows, and solving complex technical challenges.
• Solid understanding of film VFX workflows, and render needs of departments including animation, layout, lighting, look development, FX, and compositing.
• Excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting skills with a proven track record of resolving production issues quickly and efficiently.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to clearly convey technical concepts and collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams.
• Experience working in a fast-paced production environment, balancing development demands with real-time production needs.
• Ability to develop and maintain scalable, robust, and intuitive tools that support complex, film-quality workflows.
• Strong knowledge of real-time, cinematic rendering techniques, including Path Tracing, Lumen, Nanite, and virtualized assets.
• Experience with other industry-standard tools and pipelines such as ShotGrid/Flow, Maya, and Houdini.
• Strong background in processing and converting 3D scans, photogrammetry, or Gaussian splatting data into Unreal Engine 5

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of motion capture, virtual production, or real-time compositing workflows.
• Familiarity with Nuke and UnrealReader.
• Basic understanding of character rigging, animation retargeting, and live-link integrations within Unreal.
• Experience collaborating with Epic Games or other vendors on support tickets, feature requests, or beta testing.
• Knowledge of distributed rendering, cloud pipelines, or hybrid offline/real-time workflows.