Lead Render Wrangler

Swaybox Studios is hiring a Lead Render Wrangler to join their VFX team in New Orleans, LA. This role sits at the center of render farm operations for feature film production, responsible for standing up, managing, and optimizing the rendering infrastructure that keeps shots moving through the pipeline. It suits a technically grounded VFX professional who thrives on solving system-level problems and knows how to keep a farm humming when production pressure is on.

About the Role

The Lead Render Wrangler works within the VFX pipeline department alongside Pipeline, IT, Technical Directors, and Production on a feature film collaboration between DC Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, and Matt Reeves’ 6th and Idaho. Day-to-day, this person monitors render queues, triages failed or stalled jobs, manages farm priorities across departments, and helps build out the workflows and documentation the studio needs as it scales into full production. This is a ground-floor infrastructure role, not a maintenance-only position.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the setup, configuration, and rollout of the studio render farm, working directly with Pipeline and IT to bring dedicated render nodes, artist workstations, and cloud rendering resources online.
• Monitor render queues, worker health, machine availability, storage usage, and overall farm utilization across the full VFX pipeline on a daily basis.
• Troubleshoot failed and stalled render jobs, diagnosing whether the root cause sits in scene files, assets, software licensing, hardware, plugins, or pipeline configuration.
• Coordinate render priorities with VFX Production, Supervisors, and department leads to ensure deadlines are met and capacity is allocated correctly.
• Work directly with artists and department leads to identify rendering issues, communicate clearly on next steps, and keep jobs from becoming blockers on the production schedule.
• Develop and document render farm workflows, monitoring procedures, and escalation protocols as the studio moves into full feature film production.

What You Bring

• Prior experience as a Render Wrangler or technically focused VFX professional on feature film or high-end animation production.
• Hands-on knowledge of render farm management tools, render queue systems, and hybrid farm environments including cloud rendering resources.
• Ability to diagnose rendering failures across hardware, software licensing, and pipeline configuration layers without hand-holding.
• Strong communication skills with artists, TDs, and production staff in a live production environment.
• Comfort working in a studio where systems and workflows are actively being built, not inherited fully formed.

Why This Role

Swaybox Studios is building a render farm operation from the ground up for a feature film production with major studio backing, which means the Lead Render Wrangler here has direct influence over how the infrastructure is shaped, not just how it is operated. For someone who wants their fingerprints on the technical foundation of a high-profile animated feature, this is a rare onsite position in New Orleans with real scope.

Apply now for the Lead Render Wrangler role at Swaybox Studios and bring the render farm to life.