Do you know how to keep a studio running smoothly - and lead the people who make that possible?
We’re looking for a Technical Operations Manager to oversee the systems, infrastructure, and technical support that keep our artists and production teams working effectively.
Based in Tokyo, this is a hands-on leadership role for someone with strong technical judgement, excellent people skills, and calm, practical problem-solving. You’ll oversee the Systems Engineer and part-time Network Engineer, helping to set priorities, support technical decisions, and ensure issues are resolved clearly and professionally.
This role is focused on technical operations, infrastructure, systems, support, networking coordination, and production technology. It does not include direct responsibility for Pipeline.
We’re looking for someone who is approachable, organised, and solutions-focused - someone who can build trust across the studio, communicate clearly with technical and non-technical teams, and help keep our technical environment reliable, secure, and production-ready.
Key Responsibilities
- Technical operations: Oversee the day-to-day running of studio systems, including infrastructure, storage, render farm, workstations, networking coordination, core services, and technical support.
- Team leadership: Manage and support the Systems Engineer and part-time Network Engineer, setting clear priorities, expectations, and follow-up actions.
- Production support: Work closely with artists, Production, supervisors, and leadership to understand technical needs, remove blockers, and keep production moving.
- Systems reliability: Ensure production-critical systems are stable, secure, available, and performing effectively across the studio.
- Problem solving: Lead the investigation and resolution of complex technical issues, focusing on root causes, practical solutions, and prevention of recurring problems.
- Infrastructure planning: Support maintenance, capacity planning, monitoring, upgrades, and improvements across servers, storage, workstations, render resources, and network-dependent systems.
- Support standards: Ensure support requests are handled professionally, prioritised appropriately, communicated clearly, and followed through to resolution.
- Communication: Translate technical issues into clear, practical information for non-technical stakeholders, including risks, timelines, and recommended actions.
- Process improvement: Improve documentation, operational standards, support workflows, monitoring practices, and technical handover processes.
- Vendor coordination: Work with external vendors, service providers, and support partners to resolve issues, manage support cases, and support infrastructure planning.
- Cross-department collaboration: Build strong working relationships with artists, Production, supervisors, Pipeline, and leadership to ensure technical operations support creative and production goals.
- Continuous improvement: Identify recurring issues, service gaps, and opportunities to improve reliability, efficiency, security, and the overall user experience.
What You’ll Bring
- 8+ years of experience in technical operations, systems, infrastructure, IT, or production technology.
- Experience managing, coordinating, or mentoring technical staff.
- Strong understanding of Linux systems, storage, render farms, workstations, networking concepts, monitoring, and core services.
- Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills, with the ability to assess complex issues and guide practical solutions.
- Excellent communication and people skills, with the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical teams.
- Experience supporting production teams in a fast-paced creative environment.
- Ability to manage priorities, coordinate multiple requests, and remain calm under pressure.
- Strong documentation, process improvement, and operational planning skills.
- Familiarity with production tracking systems, render management tools, asset storage, and creative software environments is beneficial.
- Proficiency in English is required.
- Japanese language skills are beneficial but not essential.
Ready to help keep the studio running - and support the team that makes it possible? We’re excited to hear from you.
