Sr Studio Pipeline Engineer

General Summary At LAIKA, we craft breathtaking stop motion films by blending timeless artistic techniques with innovative technology. As a Sr Pipeline Engineer on the Studio Pipeline team, you’ll play a key role in designing, building, and maintaining the pipeline and workflow tools that empower artists and production managers throughout the creative process. In this role, you’ll focus primarily on developing and supporting core pipeline tools, middleware, and services that power studio workflows and operations. You’ll work across the stack—from end-user workflow tools to API design, services development, and data modeling—while collaborating closely with other developers, artists, and production teams. You’ll report to the Studio Pipeline Sr Manager and collaborate closely with other engineers and development teams, as well as artists and production managers in the fabrication , stage, VFX , and editorial departments. To thrive in this role, you bring strong problem-solving skills, clear communication, and a collaborative mindset. You’re organized, adaptable, and comfortable managing multiple priorities. You approach challenges with curiosity and initiative, exercise sound judgment, and help foster a positive and inclusive team culture. If you love blending art and technology, enjoy working closely with creative collaborators, and want to contribute to one of the industry’s most visionary studios, we’d love to hear from you. Job Function Design, develop, and maintain pipeline tools, middleware, and microservices supporting production tracking, asset management, and workflow automation. Architect scalable, extensible, and performant systems aligned with modern development principles, with a strong focus on service-oriented, event-driven design. Develop full-stack web applications including server-side logic, database design, and RESTful API integration within a hybrid on-prem and cloud environment. Collaborate closely with artists, leads, production managers, and fellow developers to gather requirements and translate creative and operational needs into reliable, user-centered technical solutions. Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical partners. Provide user support for FlowPT (ShotGrid), production management tools, and other pipeline-related workflows, diagnosing and resolving issues efficiently. Promote code quality and maintainability through thoughtful design, comprehensive testing, peer reviews, and thorough documentation. Champion automation and reliability by contributing to CI/CD workflows, deployment pipelines, and observability practices (logging, metrics, monitoring). Contribute to technical strategy by evaluating new technologies, sharing insights, and helping guide the long-term evolution of the studio’s web-based pipeline platforms. Develop and share knowledge by authoring technical guides, training materials, and documentation that help artists, developers, and production teams grow their understanding of the pipeline. Mentor and support junior engineers, offering guidance, feedback, and opportunities for professional growth. Qualifications 5 + years of experience developing workflow tools and services for p roduction t racking , asset management , or pipeline automation i n animation, VFX, or game development . Expert proficiency in Python including experience with UI and REST API development, and solid JavaScript fundamentals. Experience with one or more of these frameworks: Actix, Warp, Django, Flask, FastAPI, React, Vue.js. Hands-on experience with FlowPT ( ShotGrid ) including its Python and REST APIs, UI framework, and automation capabilities. Expertise in relational and data-store technologies including PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis, with experience in schema design, query optimization, and data modeling. Experience designing and operating service-oriented and event-driven systems. Solid understanding of ... (truncated, view full listing at source)