Andrew Kaufman
Principal Software Engineer at NVIDIA
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolAndrew Kaufman is a Principal Software Engineer based in Vancouver with nearly two decades of experience building and leading software for 3D technology and visual effects pipelines. He has progressed from research and R&D programmer to studio engineering lead and now to senior and principal roles at NVIDIA, driving architecture, tooling, and team development for production-grade VFX on major film and TV titles. A long-time maintainer and contributor to open-source projects like Gaffer and Cortex, he focuses on backend APIs, interoperability, and robust test coverage to keep complex node-based pipelines reliable. He pairs deep academic training in computer science with hands-on algorithmic work—everything from musculoskeletal simulation and render-time hair deformation to high-performance procedural geometry. Known for mentoring engineering teams and translating artist workflows into scalable systems, he also brings the uncommon combo of studio production experience and open-source stewardship to enterprise product development.
18 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Science (M.Sc.) Computer Science, Master of Science (M.Sc.) Computer Science at The University of British ColumbiaBachelor of Science (B.S.) Computer Science, Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Computer Science at Northwestern University
Github Skills (6)
python10
api-design10
testing9
c-language8
cprogramming-language8
front-end-development7
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
GafferHQ/gaffer
Sep 2011 - Mar 2022
Gaffer is a node-based application for lookdev, lighting and automation
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:67 releases, 86 reviews, 2068 commits in 10 years 7 months
Contributions summary:Andrew's commits primarily involve modifications to the Gaffer framework, a node-based application used for lookdev, lighting, and automation. They are making changes to improve the API and make sure the different modules are compatible with each other. This includes fixing errors, adding new features, and improving existing functionalities within the system. The user also contributes to the development of test cases for various features of the Gaffer framework.
automation
andrewkaufman/gaffer
Jan 2015 - Jul 2023
My day-to-day development. See GafferHQ/gaffer for official code
Contributions:1 PR, 581 pushes, 399 branches in 8 years 8 months
gafferday
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