Senior Technical Animator Designer

Epic Games is seeking a Senior Technical Animator Designer to join their team, focusing on various animation systems. This role involves leveraging technical understanding of character animation and domain knowledge to design and develop game animation systems for engaging, high-quality character movements. The successful candidate will be a primary contact for animation implementation issues, collaborating with animation, design, and programming teams to ensure efficient animation processes, identify potential problems, and deploy solutions, acting as a liaison between departments.

Must Have

• Facilitate creation of animation behavior tools, techniques, and philosophies for complex movement systems
• Design and implement animation behaviors, finite state machines, and runtime solutions
• Collaborate with animation, design, and programming to analyze, troubleshoot, and resolve in-game animation issues
• Work closely with animation leads to maintain animation style and quality standards
• Research opportunities to improve animation workflows and pipelines
• Strong animation skills and clear understanding of modern animation methods
• Expertise in animation processes and tools like Maya, MotionBuilder, and Unreal Engine (Control Rig)
• Strong problem-solving, written communication, and teamwork skills
• Familiarity with game animation tools and concepts like blend trees and state machines
• Experience with AAA game development, preferably in a large team using an established game engine
• Motivated candidate with a good work ethic and ability to perform tasks autonomously

Good to Have

• Experience with Unreal Engine Animation Blueprint
• Experience with Unreal Engine

Perks & Benefits

• 100% employer-paid health benefits for employees and dependents
• Additional coverage for medical, dental, vision, critical illness, telemedicine
• Life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, long-term disability insurance
• Weekly indemnity (short-term disability)
• Retirement savings plan with competitive employer contribution
• Employee assistance program
• Extensive mental wellness program through Modern Health (free therapy and coaching)

ART

What we do

Propel your artistic talent within a world-class team of innovative and inspiring artists responsible for environment, character, and design.

What you will do

Epic Games is looking for a Senior Technical Animator Designer to join our team and work on various animation systems. As a TDiA, you will leverage your technical understanding of character animation and domain knowledge to design and develop game animation systems that will create engaging and high-quality character movements. You will be a primary point of contact for animation implementation issues and all technical challenges related to this aspect. You will work closely with animation, design, and programming colleagues to ensure the smooth and efficient operation of animation processes. You will also help identify potential problems and deploy appropriate solutions through your technical knowledge. You will thus act as a liaison to facilitate communication between the animation team and other departments.

What you will be responsible for

• Facilitate the creation of tools, techniques, and philosophies for animation behaviors that enable the construction of complex movement systems.
• Design and implement animation behaviors, finite state machines, and runtime solutions.
• Work closely with animation, design, and programming departments to analyze, troubleshoot, and resolve in-game animation implementation issues and animation-related technical challenges.
• Collaborate closely with animation team leads to maintain standards for style and quality regarding in-game animations.
• Seek opportunities to improve animation workflows and pipelines. Contribute to the development of solutions to technical animation problems, including providing training and creating documentation for the animation team.

What we are looking for

• Strong animation skills. Clear understanding of modern animation methods for creating realistic and stylized character movements.
• Expertise in animation processes, particularly with source content creation tools like Maya, MotionBuilder, and Unreal Engine using our Control Rig toolset.
• Strong problem-solving ability, good written communication skills, and teamwork skills.
• Familiarity with game animation tools and concepts, such as blend trees and state machines. Experience with Unreal Engine Animation Blueprint is a plus.
• Experience with AAA game development, preferably within a large team using an established game engine (internal or commercial). Experience with Unreal Engine is a plus.
• Motivated candidate, with a good work ethic and the ability to perform tasks autonomously.
• Knowledge or experience in C++ is not required

Benefits

We pay 100% of the premiums associated with benefits, for both employees and dependents, and offer additional coverage for medical, dental, vision, critical illness, telemedicine, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and long-term disability insurance. We also offer weekly indemnity (short-term disability) and a retirement savings plan with a competitive employer contribution. In addition to the employee assistance program, we offer an extensive mental wellness program through Modern Health, an organization that provides free therapy and coaching services to employees and dependents.