About the role
Mission
Activision’s Central Animation Technology Group is seeking an Animation Engineer (Expert-Principal) to join a team focused on the future of animation in games. The goal is to make radical improvements to how characters move and behave, delivering believability and style across diverse situations and game modes.
Responsibilities
- Work with animators and other engineers to research, design, prototype, and implement new features to continuously improve character fidelity and believability at scale and complexity.
- Develop and upgrade workflows to allow the efficient building, improvement, and debugging of animation behaviors by animators and engineers.
- Support and proactively collaborate with team members at Activision studios globally.
- Tackle a wide variety of engineering challenges vital to character movement and behavior.
Minimum Requirements
- 15+ years of professional programming experience with a focus on skeletal animation.
- Proficiency in C/C++ in multithreaded environments.
- Passion for advancing high-fidelity interactive animation in AAA games.
- Strong 3D math and linear algebra skills.
- Experience working directly on low-level game animation systems.
- Knowledge of animation topics including inverse kinematics, blend trees, ragdolls, state machines, and secondary motion techniques.
- Capability and readiness to take a leading role on projects.
- Multitasking ability to work on multiple tech threads with different teams.
Extra Points
- Credited on 3 or more AAA game titles for PC or consoles.
- Familiarity with content creation tools such as Maya.
Working Conditions
- Locations: Flexibility to be based in U.S. or European studios.
- Remote Work: Eligibility included.
- Environment: Fast-paced; priorities may shift to meet business needs.
Rewards and Benefits
- Compensation: Standard U.S. base pay range is $171,100.00 - $316,576.00 Annual, plus potential incentive compensation.
- Insurance: Medical, dental, vision, health savings account (HSA), health reimbursement account (HRA), healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance.
- Financial: 401(k) with company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching.
- Time Off: Paid holidays, vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave.
- Wellbeing: Mental health and wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games.
- Miscellaneous: Various voluntary benefit programs including supplemental life/disability, legal services, ID protection, and rental insurance.
- Relocation: Assistance available if the company requires a move to a different geographic location.
Company Overview
Activision Blizzard is a developer, publisher, and distributor of interactive entertainment. Franchises include Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Guitar Hero, Skylanders, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Candy Crush, and Bubble Witch. The organization is committed to diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity employment.