DreamWorks Technology - Principal Engineer, AI

DreamWorks is seeking a highly collaborative AI Architect who will be a hands-on technical leader assistive across multiple teams aimed to provide results to both technical and creative departments. This role involves identifying, designing, and delivering AI-powered agentic architecture that eliminates the repetitive, manual, low-creativity tasks that pull artists and production management away from their craft, while maintaining high operational availability to ensure production systems run reliably.

Responsibilities

Collaborate and advise on next-generation AI-assisted agentic workflows strategy alongside product owners, developers and creatives; Design and own the architecture for AI-powered frameworks and automation across the entire Studio pipeline and platforms; Define the end-to-end architecture for ingestion, processing, and routing of operational telemetry (metrics, logs, traces); Integrate solutions with popular industry DCC tools; Prototype solutions for high-friction tasks: asset tagging, scene prep, render queue management, shot setup, and versioning; Define technical standards and integration patterns for AI tooling across departments and shows; Evaluate and select AI frameworks, foundation models, and automation technologies for creative production and operational stability; Build and maintain a library of reusable AI components and automation patterns; Partner with platform, systems and security teams to monitor model drift, system latency, and system security; Write, test, and deploy production-ready tools that run reliably inside active show pipelines; Develop reference implementations that set the canonical pattern for future pipeline AI work; Partner with engineers and TDs to fold automation into existing artist-facing toolsets; Maintain and iterate on deployed tools based on artist feedback and production data; Drive adoption across both technical and creative departments so tools are understood, trusted, and used; Create lightweight training and documentation for artists and engineers; Establish metrics for automation impact and report results to studio leadership on a regular cadence; Champion a culture of continuous improvement and surface new automation opportunities as workflows evolve

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field; 10+ years building production systems, with 2+ years building AI/ML systems for real workflows; Hands-on experience deploying enterprise software in AI, data, or integration environments; Expertise with containerization, orchestration, Python, TypeScript, React, and AI frameworks such as LangGraph, Spring AI and MCP; Deep understanding of LLM model integration and tuning; Experience with designing automation that reduces manual work in complex, multi-stakeholder environments; Proven ability to influence senior engineers without authority and to be the person others learn from; History of building and supporting durable artifacts: frameworks, templates, training, open source that extend to other projects; Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate fluently between artists, production management, and engineers; Genuine passion for animation, storytelling, or creative production

Nice to have

2+ years in a Principal, Staff, or Lead role responsible for AI or pipeline automation, ideally in a creative studio; Strong understanding of the animation production pipeline, departmental workflows, and industry-standard digital content creation (DCC) software; Familiarity with animation frameworks and standards such as USD, Autodesk Flow Production Tracking and Jira; Experience measuring and reporting the productivity impact of engineering tooling investments; Stays current with AI trends and emerging technologies

Benefits

Company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance; 401(k); paid leave; tuition reimbursement; a variety of other discounts and perks