Company Description

MillX is a global experience design and interactive production group. We create next generation spatial and digital solutions for complex marketing and industry challenges for the world’s visionary brands, agencies and industries. We operate as part of production company and VFX powerhouse The Mill. 

Twenty plus years of innovation has established The Mill as a recognized global brand and our reputation is built on our people. We find, train and nurture the most talented creative, technical and production teams in the industry and our scale enables us to work individually, in teams or as an international network via our bases in London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Berlin and Bangalore. 

Job Description

We are looking for a Director of Creative Technology who can manage a global team of creative technologists, developers and technical artists, as well as develop technology pipelines and architect solutions using a full stack of software across a broad spectrum of interactive and experiential work. 

You are an experienced and talented engineering leader who can build infrastructure for creating next-generation client and public-facing interactive experiences with sensitivity to ambitious creative and quality output.

You and your team will work with a MillX multidisciplinary group of artists, producers and strategists to develop groundbreaking interactive and experiential products for our clients. We combine expertise from the interactive and film industries to advance real-time visuals and experiences. 

As an owner of core development principles, you will drive continuous process improvement and innovation by identifying inefficiencies in current processes, improving agility of the team, and adopting industry trends for innovation. 

We expect a strong focus on developing the team, supporting mentorship, fostering a fun and creative culture and leveraging the skillsets of new and existing talent. 

As a passionate leader of the Creative Technology team, you will be continually analyzing the technology landscape, evaluating short and long term implications, and communicating strategies and change initiatives clearly. 

You will develop and leverage internal and external partnerships and networks to maximize the achievements of the Creative Technology team and the MillX business, engaging key stakeholders in the development, execution and evaluation of commercial and non-commercial projects and initiatives. 

Reports to: Group Director, Emerging Technology and CTO 

Works With: ECD and Creatives, Executive Producers & Producers, Engineering, R&D 

Direct Reports: Heads of Creative Technology, Creative Technology team 

Responsibilities:

• Play a critical role in shaping the technical vision and practices for the Creative Technology team while working closely with MillX production and creative leadership to deliver the best of interactive and experiential projects.

• Hire, mentor and develop the global Creative Technology team for maximum impact and org health.

• Define and refine best practices for an evolving and boundary-pushing team. 

• Establish in-house frameworks, boilerplate-code and coding conventions for use on both client and internal projects to streamline development. 

• Apply design practices to novel situations and thrive on learning new tech stacks and frameworks. Be equally comfortable designing solutions to operate at Mill scale or diving deep into project-based mission-critical bugs. 

• Instill strong software development methodologies and problem-solving skills. 

• Ensure technical documentation is completed for all projects and guide other members of the team in continuing this practice. 

• Stay current on relevant technology and conduct necessary research, due diligence, prototyping and testing to assess emerging technology options. 

• Nurture a culture of experimentation within the MillX and Creative Technology teams, on both commercial and non-commercial projects. Proactively come up with ideas for new workflows, plugins, etc. 

• Contribute towards winning new projects by developing creative technology solutions and proposals in response to client briefs, RFPs and RFIs in keeping with project goals, timings and budget.

• Design, and supervise the prototype and build of new and innovative MillX projects using emerging technologies, oversee deployments and delivery, and develop automated build processes where possible. 

• Ensure the successful delivery of commercial and non-commercial projects, as well as be able to pivot on technology and creative when the project demands it. 

• Clearly communicate complex solutions and challenges in an easy to understand way, to both technical and non-technical staff and clients. 

• Collaborate closely with across studios and VFX departments to share pipeline innovations and improvements as well as helping to integrate department platforms and tools. 

Qualifications

Requirements:

• 10 years of professional software engineering for interactive experiences required; 5 years of which in a management role. 

• Self-motivated, with little guidance needed, and an ability to work on multiple projects and prioritize tasks for each in an agile manner. 

• Excellent communication and team management and interaction skills. 

• An understanding of good user experience and how to implement best practices into interactive projects. 

• Extensive domain knowledge of interactive/videogame/real-time production pipelines using technology such as Unity or Unreal with C#, C and Blueprints. 

• Extensive graphics knowledge, a sensitivity to in-game visual development, and experience with recent Unreal/Unity features. 

• Experience with mobile app development and deployment to Android and iOS. 

• Familiar with Application and Transport layer networking protocols. 

• Knowledge of data structures, algorithms and 3D math. 

• Knowledge of 3D exchange formats for meshes, materials, animations and textures. 

• Solid software engineering skills, including the ability to write robust, maintainable, well-architected, well-documented code. 

• Experience creating artist content creation tools. 

• Familiar with hardware capture devices. 

• Experience with motion capture equipment such as Xsens, Opti-track, Rokoko. 

• Experience creating Software Development Kits. 

• Working knowledge of prototyping and building large interactive environments, synchronized visual effects, and particle systems. 

• Experience with web technologies and frameworks both server side and client side. 

• Experience building highly polished browser-based web experiences across mobile and desktop, leveraging common web frameworks such as ThreeJS. 

• Computer Science BS, MS or PhD degree preferred or equivalent experience. 

Nice to have:

• Working knowledge of building networked multi-user game experiences. 

• Experience leveraging AI & Machine Learning for tooling and artistic purposes. 

• Knowledge of virtual production practices using game engines. 

• Experience with Raspberry pi, Arduino, micro controllers, LED, robotics, motors, batteries and off the shelf hardware. 

• Strong working knowledge of PyQT/PySide, Mel, Maya. 

• Experience with Cinder and/or TouchDesigner 

Key Performance Indicators:

• Management and growth of a technically diverse and effective Creative Technology team 

• The use of improved software development methods and the re-use of existing libraries where applicable to shorten development times.

• Improvement in the development of the Creative Technology team regarding work processes and development skills.

• Successfully aiding production teams on accurate budgeting which follows through to correct staff utilisation on projects. Delivering projects to their agreed scope within deadlines and on budget. 

• Successfully delivering on planned development roadmaps for the Creative Technology team.

• Consistent implementation of new and emerging technology workflows into commercial and non-commercial projects.

• Lead Creative Technology contribution to Mill IP development. 

Additional Information

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