DreamWorks Technology - Principal Engineer, AI

Description

The team is building AI-assisted agentic workflows across the studio's pipeline and platforms, and this role sets the technical direction for that work.

You will work with product owners, developers and creative staff to decide where AI can take on repetitive production work.

The company is a growth-focused animation studio producing award-winning films and series for audiences worldwide. The studio is made up of artists, technologists and storytellers.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture for AI-powered frameworks and automation across the studio pipeline and platforms.
• Define the end-to-end design for collecting, processing and routing operational telemetry, including metrics, logs and traces.
• Connect your solutions to widely used industry DCC tools.
• Prototype fixes for high-friction tasks such as asset tagging, scene prep, render queue management, shot setup and versioning.
• Set technical standards and integration patterns for AI tools across departments and shows.
• Assess and choose AI frameworks, foundation models and automation technologies for creative production and operational stability.
• Build and maintain a shared library of reusable AI components and automation patterns.
• Work with platform, systems and security teams to track model drift, system latency and security.
• Write, test and ship production-grade tools that run reliably during active shows.
• Create reference implementations that future pipeline AI work will follow.
• Work with engineers and technical directors to add automation to the toolsets artists already use.
• Improve deployed tools using artist feedback and production data.
• Drive adoption in both technical and creative departments so people understand, trust and use the tools.
• Write short training materials and documentation for artists and engineers.
• Define metrics for automation impact and report results to studio leadership regularly.
• Look for new automation opportunities as workflows change and encourage continuous improvement.

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering or a related technical field.
• 10+ years building production systems, including 2+ years building AI or ML systems for real workflows.
• Hands-on experience deploying enterprise software in AI, data or integration environments.
• Strong skills in containerization, orchestration, Python, TypeScript, React, and AI frameworks such as LangGraph, Spring AI and MCP.
• Deep knowledge of integrating and tuning LLMs.
• Experience designing automation that cuts manual work in complex environments with many stakeholders.
• A track record of influencing senior engineers without formal authority and of being someone others learn from.
• A history of building and maintaining lasting assets such as frameworks, templates, training and open source projects that others reuse.
• Clear communication, able to translate between artists, production management and engineers.
• A genuine interest in animation, storytelling or creative production.
• It would also help if you have 2+ years in a principal, staff or lead role owning AI or pipeline automation, ideally at a creative studio.
• It would also help if you understand the animation production pipeline, departmental workflows and standard DCC software well.
• It would also help if you know animation frameworks and standards such as USD, Autodesk Flow Production Tracking and Jira.
• It would also help if you have measured and reported the productivity impact of engineering tooling.
• It would also help if you keep up with AI trends and emerging technology.

Conditions

This is a hybrid role. You must work from the office at least four days a week, and the company may change in-office requirements at any time.

Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered in line with applicable law, including local fair chance rules.

Benefits

• Eligible for company-sponsored benefits including medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and various discounts and perks.
• Full benefit details are on the Benefits page of the company careers website.