diff --git a/openpype/modules/deadline/plugins/publish/submit_maya_deadline.py b/openpype/modules/deadline/plugins/publish/submit_maya_deadline.py
index 9964e3c646..3707c5709f 100644
--- a/openpype/modules/deadline/plugins/publish/submit_maya_deadline.py
+++ b/openpype/modules/deadline/plugins/publish/submit_maya_deadline.py
@@ -710,7 +710,9 @@ class MayaSubmitDeadline(pyblish.api.InstancePlugin):
                 new_payload["JobInfo"].update(tiles_data["JobInfo"])
                 new_payload["PluginInfo"].update(tiles_data["PluginInfo"])
 
-                job_hash = hashlib.sha256("{}_{}".format(file_index, file))
+                self.log.info("hashing {} - {}".format(file_index, file))
+                job_hash = hashlib.sha256(
+                    ("{}_{}".format(file_index, file)).encode("utf-8"))
                 frame_jobs[frame] = job_hash.hexdigest()
                 new_payload["JobInfo"]["ExtraInfo0"] = job_hash.hexdigest()
                 new_payload["JobInfo"]["ExtraInfo1"] = file