Position Overview
SideFX is seeking a Houdini Learning Materials Coordinator to join our Marketing team in Toronto. Reporting to the Producer, Houdini Learning Content, this role focuses on the creation, refinement, preparation, and ongoing maintenance of high-quality Houdini learning materials for SideFX's educational ecosystem. The position is centered on building clear, engaging, and technically strong learning content, preparing production-ready project files and downloadable assets, and ensuring learning materials are accurate, polished, and accessible for artists across a range of skill levels.
The Houdini Learning Materials Coordinator will help shape how artists learn procedural workflows through learning content, course materials, learning assets, and structured educational content. This role supports the development of beginner, intermediate, and advanced resources, while helping maintain a clean, reliable, and well-organized content library that reflects SideFX's standards for learning quality and usability.
The ideal candidate combines strong hands-on Houdini knowledge with experience teaching Houdini, preparing polished learning assets, and creating clear instructional materials. They bring a strong artistic eye, experience using Houdini across games, real-time, and related production workflows, and a portfolio that demonstrates both high-quality Houdini work and learner-facing content creation.
What you will be working on:
- Creating, refining, and supporting Houdini learning content, course materials, and educational assets that clearly demonstrate practical workflows, tools, and techniques across multiple disciplines.
- Editing learning materials for publishing, ensuring clarity, consistency, usability, and alignment with SideFX learning standards.
- Preparing, cleaning, optimizing, and packaging Houdini scene files for release, ensuring organized node structure, reliable results, clear setup, and ease of use for learners and instructors.
- Building and maintaining downloadable course assets such as project files, scene files, reference resources, starter files, completed files, and supporting educational materials.
- Performing quality assurance on learning materials prior to release, validating project files, workflows, links, formatting, metadata, and learner-facing packaging across supported Houdini versions.
- Reviewing existing learning content to assess technical accuracy and functionality over time, identifying outdated steps, broken workflows, or version-specific issues, and preparing revision notes or updated assets as needed.
- Helping organize and improve learning content within the content library and Learning Paths, with a focus on consistency, discoverability, instructional value, and content readiness.
- Screen recording, editing, and polishing educational media components where needed, including lesson videos, walkthrough content, visual callouts, and supporting promotional learning assets.
- Collaborating with internal teams to develop learning materials that highlight new Houdini features, workflows, and creative techniques for artists across film, VFX, motion, games, and real-time disciplines.
- Assisting with metadata tagging, file versioning, and content tracking as part of maintaining a clean, sustainable, and easy-to-manage learning content library.
- Participating in creative brainstorming and production planning for upcoming learning initiatives, educational campaigns, and new learning content.
What you need to be successful
- 3+ years of professional experience in Houdini-based production, educational content development, learning materials creation, or a related technical/artistic role.
- Experience using Houdini in games, real-time, VFX, film, or related production environments.
- Demonstrated experience teaching Houdini through tutorials, workshops, recorded lessons, classroom content, demo projects, or other educational materials.
- Strong ability to turn technical and artistic Houdini concepts into clear, engaging, learner-friendly content.
- Strong file-preparation skills, including cleaning scenes, organizing networks, packaging assets, and ensuring materials are release-ready and easy to use.
- Experience reviewing and updating content across Houdini versions to maintain technical accuracy and workflow reliability.
- Excellent communication skills, attention to detail, and ability to collaborate effectively across teams.
- A strong portfolio showcasing Houdini work across multiple disciplines, along with previously created tutorials, educational content, or learning materials.
Bonus Skills
- Strong knowledge of Houdini across multiple workflows, including SOPs, FX, CFX, KineFX, Copernicus, Solaris, lighting, look development, rendering, general procedural scene building, HDA building, and PDG.
- Proficiency with Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, or similar tools used for editing educational and promotional content.
- Strong artistic eye and visual sensibility, with attention to presentation, clarity, and quality in both Houdini work and learning materials.
Company Profile
For over thirty years, SideFX has been at the forefront of providing artists with procedural 3D animation and visual effects tools designed to produce the highest-quality cinematic results. Rooted in production as both artists and pioneering technical innovators, we are passionate about supporting our customers' creative visions.
SideFX has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences multiple times, including with an Oscar® for our flagship software product, Houdini, and our breakthrough procedural-based technology.
Used by the world’s top film, TV, and game studios, from the largest AAA to the smallest Indie Studios, Houdini has transformed content creation workflows at hundreds of film and game studios. Contributing to blockbuster movies like Black Panther and Moana, captivating TV shows such as Game of Thrones and The Crown, and hit video games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Spiderman, and Ghost Recon. Our diverse clientele includes industry leaders like Disney Feature Animation, Pixar, Weta Digital, CD Projekt Red, and Rockstar Games, demonstrating Houdini’s transformative impact across multiple entertainment mediums.
What We Value Most:
- Decency: We treat everyone with honesty, kindness and empathy. We give generously of our time and knowledge.
- Relationships: We build collaborative bonds—with our co-workers and clients—based on trust and respect. Our diverse team gives us broader perspectives.
- Dedication: We take pride and ownership in our work, always trying to do our best. We are devoted to the well-being and success of each other and our clients.
- Excellence: We continually improve ourselves, our work and our company, striving towards excellence in all that we do.
Our Employees Receive:
- Hybrid Work option - Combining time spent collaborating in person at our offices with remote work for added flexibility.
- Generous paid time off, including vacation and floater days to relax and re-energize (starting at 4 weeks).
- Year-End Company Shutdown and Long Weekend Early departures to support a healthy work-life balance.
- Health insurance coverage: Robust Health insurance coverage for you and your dependents.
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP); because sometimes we need a bit of extra support.
- Retirement Plan with company matched contributions.
- Comprehensive Long Service Award program, providing both a monetary reward and additional days off.
- A highly competitive bonus structure.
- A generous sick time entitlement to care for yourself and your loved ones.
Why Join SideFX?
- Because you want to be part of a unique experience and winning team that has won an Oscar and an Emmy (Cool, right?)
- Because you want to grow with one of Canada's Best Managed Companies®
- Because you want to be part of an industry-leading company that is constantly mindfully growing.
- Because you want to work with some of the most talented people in the industry on a ground-breaking product.
- Because you want to work with people from all around the world.
- Because you want to be part of an exciting and fun industry.
- Because you want to join and add to a positive, supportive and respected company culture.
- Because you want your job to be GREAT!
Location
This role is primarily based in our Toronto office; candidates in other locations may be considered.
SideFX is committed to inclusion and diversity. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply. Accommodation will be provided to candidates with disabilities upon request.
Our hiring process does not involve the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to screen, assess or select applicants.
