Sr. Pipeline Engineer

Description

Halon Entertainment is a visualization and technology studio: previz, postviz, virtual production, game trailers, and cinematics for film, games, and advertising. We're hiring senior engineers for the small platform team that builds the tools our artists and supervisors work in every day. Our product is that tooling, and the people who use it are our customers.

Requirements

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain the studio's pipeline and artist-facing tools: launchers, publishers, loaders, review and notes tools, and the interfaces artists use daily.
• Build the front-ends for those tools across our surfaces: web (TypeScript/JavaScript), Qt/PySide desktop UIs, and in-engine tools in Unreal, with an emphasis on interfaces that are fast, responsive, and a pleasure to use.
• Develop and maintain integrations with Maya, Unreal, and Nuke through their Python APIs, and with Perforce, on Windows.
• Work within and extend our AYON-based pipeline.
• Build AI-assisted features into the pipeline tooling.
• Use AI to move faster on day-to-day development while holding a high bar for code quality and keeping the codebase clean and free of slop.
• Own the tools you build through their full lifecycle: ship, maintain, and improve them in production.
• Manage your own work. We have no project managers; you plan and drive your tasks and work with the team to set priorities.
• Collaborate directly with artists and supervisors to understand their work and build tools that fit how they actually work.

Requirements

• Strong computer-science foundation: data structures, algorithms, and systems design, with the depth to build software that is correct and durable. This is the most heavily weighted requirement, and we welcome it from any domain (games, simulation, systems, graphics, backend).
• Strong software-engineering practice: you write maintainable, well-tested code and design systems that last.
• Professional Python experience for day-to-day development.
• Depth in a systems / close-to-the-hardware language (C++, Rust, C, Zig, or similar), or comparable rigor in performance, concurrency, or low-level systems work. Day-to-day work here is Python; this depth signals the engineering foundation we're looking for.
• UI/UX and front-end ability: you build responsive, intuitive interfaces (web with TypeScript/JavaScript, Qt/PySide desktop UIs, and in-engine tools) and care about the details of how they feel to use.
• Comfortable using AI tools in your day-to-day engineering, and thoughtful about where they help and where they don't.
• Excellent communication skills in fluent English, written and spoken (C1 or higher, near-native). We are a fully remote team with no project managers, so clear, proactive communication is essential: you explain your technical decisions, align on priorities with the team, and work directly with artists without anyone relaying for you.
• A user-centered mindset toward the artists you build for.
• Senior-level experience: you've owned significant systems end to end and work with high autonomy.

Nice to Have

• VFX, animation, or virtual-production pipeline experience.
• Maya, Unreal, Nuke, Houdini, or similar DCC tools (we drive them through their Python APIs).
• AYON, OpenPype, or other pipeline frameworks.
• Perforce, or Git at scale.

More Details

• Fully remote, open to candidates across Latin America and Europe. You'll keep a daily overlap window with the team on Pacific (PT) or Eastern (ET) time; the rest of your schedule is flexible.

Strong computer science foundation in data structures, algorithms, and systems design. Professional experience with Python for daily development, and depth in a systems language like C++, Rust, C, or Zig. Proven ability to build responsive and intuitive UI/UX using web technologies (TypeScript/JavaScript), Qt/PySide, or in-engine tools. Comfortable using AI tools in engineering and possessing excellent communication skills in English (C1 or higher). A user-centered mindset toward artists and senior-level experience in owning significant systems end-to-end with high autonomy is essential. Experience with VFX, animation, virtual production pipeline, Maya, Unreal, Nuke, Houdini, AYON/OpenPype, or Perforce/Git at scale is a plus.