Lead Technical Animator

Company Description

To create revolutionary, story-driven RPGs which go straight to the hearts of gamers — this is our mission. Want to dive deeper into our company’s culture? Explore our social media and check out our YouTube channel where we share behind-the-scenes insights and stories direct from our team members!

Job Description

CD PROJEKT RED is looking for a Lead Technical Animator to join our studio in Boston and work on Project Orion, the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077. You will bring your years of expertise, leadership skills, attention to detail, and passion for creating animation pipelines and systems for characters, vehicles, and weapons to our growing team. 

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage a high performing Technical Art team comprising Rigging TD’s and Technical Animators. 
• Leverage your skillsets in both digital content creation tools and real-time engines to drive and deliver high-quality character, vehicle, and weapon workflows, pipelines, and animation solutions.
• Manage your direct reports and help them grow in their role and ambitions, including setting up 1:1s, performance management, hiring and promotions. 
• Work with Directors and Production to estimate and plan work.
• Collaborate closely with designers, artists and other developers to understand their needs and ensure that your team is aligned to deliver on expectations.
• Coordinate and drive cross-discipline functional teams from feature conception to completion. 
• Establish and maintain best practices offering guidance to support content development team artistic and technical objectives. 
• Mentor the technical art team, building an environment of creativity, trust, and excellence aligned with the company’s values and goals.

Pipeline

• Prototype, research, integrate, and extend rigging and animation systems.
• Help devise, develop, and maintain pipelines for asset creation focusing on characters, weapons, and vehicles.
• Solve complex technical art challenges while ensuring workflows and systems are efficient and scalable.
• Actively participate in evaluating performance and optimization to ensure seamless cross-team gameplay experiences.
• Foster cross-department collaboration to ensure the content and animation work effectively contributes across game teams and systems.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7+ years of experience in the video games industry, including at least one shipped AAA title through the entire production lifecycle.
• Experience leading a technical art team.
• Expertise in Unreal Engine 5 Rigging and Animation Systems.
• Animation pipeline knowledge including developing and scripting tools for Maya, MotionBuilder, or other DCC applications. 
• Proven track record of building character, vehicle, weapon workflows and pipelines.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills.
• Ability to think creatively and strategically to overcome technical challenges and drive innovation in technology.
• Demonstrated commitment to taking ownership, setting goals, exchanging knowledge and driving initiatives independently.

Nice to Haves:

(Please note that these skills are not required to apply for the position)

• Strong C++, C#, or Python tool development and scripting professional experience.
• Experience in animation performance/memory optimization.

Additional Information

This job requires working in Boston, US.
Working mode: in-office in a hybrid or full-time capacity.   

Health & Well-being

• Company paid medical healthcare (dental vision & mental).
• Paid Leave — 20 days of holiday for every team member per year (26 days after two years).
• No dress-code — we like to keep it casual.
• 401K with employer matching.
• Gym Membership Reimbursement.

Perks & Professional Growth

• Flexible working hours.
• Trainings, lectures and courses — internal workshops, knowledge-sharing initiatives, online tutorials, and e-learning classes are all available. There’s always something to learn!
• Merch — gifts for newborn rebels and regular chances to nab some cool swag!
• A welcome pack filled with goodies — to help you feel right at home once you join the team.

Life in the Office

• Dog-friendly office — dog owner? Bring your pooch with you and look after them while working! There’s always a furry friend or two to meet at the studio.
• Truly international working environment — a chance to meet and work with a diverse selection of people from all around the world.
   

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