Senior VFX Artist - Lightspeed Studios

NVIDIA•Us, CA

About The Position

NVIDIA is seeking an outstanding Senior Tools Engineer to join our Lightspeed Studios team! Lightspeed Studios, the team behind NVIDIA’s next-generation tech demos, is dedicated to developing cutting-edge visuals using the latest NVIDIA rendering technology. In this role, you’ll help build the tools, pipelines, and workflows that enable artists and developers to create groundbreaking real-time content efficiently and at the highest quality. At Lightspeed, we work across art and engineering to tackle production problems that emerge while building advanced real-time experiences. The Senior Tools Engineer will develop production tools across desktop applications, DCCs, and real-time environments, improve how content moves through production, and help artists and engineers iterate faster with reliable, well-designed software.

Requirements

8+ years of professional experience in tools engineering, pipeline engineering, technical art engineering, or related software development within games, VFX, animation, or real-time production.
BS, MS, or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related subject area.
Strong Python development experience with an understanding of software architecture, debugging, testing, and API design.
Strong experience building desktop tools and user interfaces with Qt, PySide, PyQt, or similar frameworks.
Experience integrating DCC applications such as Maya, Houdini, Substance, Blender, Photoshop, or similar tools.
Experience developing production integrations or tools for real-time engines such as Unreal Engine.
Understanding of asset pipelines, source control, validation, metadata, and publishing workflows.
Experience working with artists and translating production requirements into effective technical solutions.

Nice To Haves

Background with C++ application or plugin development.
Experience building tools and integrations across multiple DCC applications and production systems as well as experience with real-time rendering or game-engine tools development.
Experience applying machine learning or agentic AI to artist workflows, production automation, or content creation.
Background with supporting AAA game development or similarly complex real-time production environments.

Responsibilities

Design and develop Python and Qt/PySide tools, desktop applications, and DCC integrations.
Work directly with artists, technical artists, and engineers to understand production challenges and turn them into practical software solutions.
Improve existing tools and workflows with a focus on usability, reliability, performance, and iteration speed.
Develop integrations across DCC applications, production systems, and real-time environments.
Explore new approaches to content creation and workflow automation, including agentic AI systems that can assist with repetitive or multi-step production tasks.