Position Summary

Are you a talented systems administrator, looking for an opportunity to make science films that change the world? Would you like to apply your technical skills to transform how people see their connection to our planet, nature and the cosmos? The Planetarium Production Systems Administrator will play an integral role in the creation of beautiful cutting-edge science content showcased in San Francisco and planetariums around the world.

You will design and maintain the infrastructure of CAS in-house, award-winning science Visualization Studio (Viz Studio) comprised of a small team of visual effects artists and engineers creating science visualizations, animations, and fulldome imagery for planetarium programs. This position reports to the Visual Effects Supervisor.

Essential duties and functions

• Design, implement and maintain complex and high-performance systems to support the Viz Studio: improve network, storage, workstation and render farm infrastructure in support of the science visualization team creating high resolution image sequences and realtime content generated from 3D models, animations, textures and scientific datasets.
• Customize workstations for 6-10 Viz Studio artists in Linux and Mac environments.
• Configure visual effects software and custom operating system environments.
• Identify, negotiate, and collaborate with expert consultants, vendors and Cal Academy staff on long term design, planning and budgeting of future hardware and software infrastructure and cloud-based services.
• Design, spec, install and manage equipment. Generate/maintain documentation of systems.
• Plan, construct and maintain disaster recovery, backup and archive strategy.
• Provide support and coverage for planetarium systems operations and render farm, with periodic night, weekend and holiday shifts.

Minimum Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required or preferred.  A qualified candidate will possess a combination of the following:

• Linux/Mac systems and data server administration experience: RHEL7 or CentOS 7, macOSX.
• Good understanding of TCP/IP networking, ethernet configuration, fiber switches; proven ability to troubleshoot and resolve network issues in a timely manner.
• Knowledge of render server, 3D and video production workstation architecture, custom CentOS and MacOSX operating system image testing and deployment.
• Comfortable scripting with high level languages (e.g., Python).
• Works well with cross-discipline and cross-departmental teams.
• Open collaborator who tracks/shares projects' progress proactively and regularly.
• Self-starter with solid problem solving abilities, a willingness to learn, attention to detail, excellent communication skills, and a sense of humor.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Experience working in a visual effects, real-time graphics, science visualization or audio/visual production environment.
• Experience with visual effects software (e.g. Houdini, Maya, Blender, Nuke, Adobe CC) and good understanding of 3D and 2D computer graphics and visual effects workflows.
• Virtual environments and virtual machines knowledge.
• Remote workstation, cloud storage and computing familiarity.
• Job management software experience (e.g. PipelineFX Qube).
• AR, VR or 360 Video experience .

Lear more and apply for this position at the official website.