Hello folks. I've been a member of LQ for quite some time now & have come across lots of intelligent people, so now that it's time to do some hiring, this seems like a great place to look. Without further ado....


We are a post production facility in Santa Monica, CA (7 blocks from the beach). Our facility has on the order of 150 users, an approximately 400 proc render farm, a full video path, and several flame/inferno machines. Almost all of our artists (the majority of our staff) work on Debian machines (many of which have tablets and/or dual monitors). Our production people use OSX & we have a handful of Windows machines where we have to.

If you're unfamiliar with "post production," a very short description is that we add visual effects (think "Spiderman" or "The Matrix") to feature films, tv commercials, and the occasional television show. We pride ourselves on the caliber of our employees & have won several awards for our work. Current/recent projects (off the top of my head) include "Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "National Treasure 2," "Terminator 4: Salvation," "Hyundai Genesis," and "Nike 'Speed'" (a very abridged list).

If you happen to live/breathe tech, then you'll also like to know that we buy very little in the way of pre-packaged systems when there exists a linux-friendly way of accomplishing the same goal. An example would be our file servers... rather than buy an Isalon or BluArc, we've built our own high performance, highly-available, expandable, and fail-over-able (new word!) file server system from scratch using all open source tools & custom configs.

Now that I've hopefully piqued your interest, here's our official job ad (pardon my lazy transcription of the ad):

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Santa Monica based Visual Effects company looking for senior and mid-level Linux Systems Administrators to assist with the expansion of this fast growing company.

Applicants must be comfortable working under pressure, meeting challenging deadlines and dealing with an ever evolving environment. Must have good communication skills. Must have patience and be able to deal with a wide range of personalities. Must be especially tolerant of artist temperaments. A sense of humor will go a long way! Individuals that are well rounded and have work in a creative environment will be successful in this position.

Required Skills and Experiences:
- Extensive administrative and architectural knowledge of network systems. Linux is a must
- Programming in Python, C, and C++, and the occasional shell script.
- Familiarity with MySQL databases

Additional Requirements:
Self motivated but happy to take direction when necessary.
Able to "Think outside of the box:
Able to work with little supervision
Team player who can pitch in and get hands dirty
Successful Project Management
Ability to lead and manage a team
Flexible work schedule
Quick to pick up new tools and systems

Knowledge of high end visual effects software and systems such as Maya, Houdini, Renderman, and Flame is a plus.

Ideally, a mid-level applicant would have a very strong programming side w/ mid-level system administration skills. A senior level applicant would be a Linux expert with at least mid-level programming experience.


Please send me a PM if you are interested so we can have an informal chat, then I will put you in touch with our HR & see about setting up a phone interview.