About the role
Role Overview
Advanced Technical Animator (Contract) based in Austin, TX. This role focuses on driving the development of scalable, high-performance character systems across Unreal Engine productions. The position requires an intersection of animation, rigging, engineering, and pipeline expertise to enable teams to deliver high-quality, real-time content. Responsibilities include architecting runtime animation systems, building and optimizing production pipelines, developing tools, and collaborating across disciplines to support both internal teams and external partners.
Responsibilities
- Design, implement, and maintain scalable runtime animation systems in Unreal Engine, including Animation Blueprint architectures that are performant and thread-safe.
- Develop modular, data-driven animation frameworks supporting layered gameplay systems (motion matching, state machines, additive systems, gameplay-driven logic).
- Build, integrate, and optimize character systems such as IK setups, secondary motion, and simulation workflows (e.g., cloth and hair).
- Profile, debug, and optimize animation and character systems for performance across multiplayer, large-scale, or live-service environments.
- Own and support the end-to-end facial animation pipeline, including defining model requirements, guiding joint setup and rigging approaches, and ensuring successful integration and performance in-engine.
- Design, build, and maintain robust cross-DCC and engine pipelines to support character and animation workflows.
- Develop and maintain custom tools (Python, MEL, C#, or C++) in Maya and Unreal to improve iteration speed and content quality.
- Identify production bottlenecks, troubleshoot complex pipeline and content issues, and implement scalable solutions across teams.
- Partner with external vendors and internal stakeholders to support and scale outsourcing pipelines.
- Establish best practices, documentation, and onboarding materials to ensure consistency and efficiency across teams.
- Support version control workflows, asset management systems, and studio-wide pipeline standards.
- Mentor team members and contribute to evolving technical and pipeline strategies across projects.
Requirements
- 7+ years of experience in games, film, or real-time interactive production, with a focus on technical animation, technical art, or related disciplines.
- Deep experience with Unreal Engine, including real-time animation systems and performance considerations. Ability to profile animation systems using Unreal Insights and in-engine tools.
- Strong scripting and programming skills (Python required; experience with MEL, C#, or C++ preferred).
- Proven experience developing and maintaining production-ready tools, pipelines, and workflows.
- Strong understanding of real-time character systems, including skeletal hierarchies, retargeting, facial rigging techniques, IK/FK blending, pose-space correctives and runtime constraints.
- Experience supporting or building character-related systems such as animation graphs, simulation workflows, or deformation pipelines.
- Hands-on experience with at least one major DCC package (Maya preferred).
- Demonstrated ability to diagnose and resolve complex technical and production challenges across disciplines.
- Experience working in collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams with clear communication and documentation skills.