Ninja Theory Ltd. was formed in 2004 by four partners, including current Directors Nina Kristensen (Chief Development Director) and Tameem Antoniades (Chief Creative Director). We pride ourselves on striving for the highest production values, continually pushing the boundaries of technology, art and design to create evermore meaningful and memorable video game experiences.We're based in Cambridge, UK and are the creators of five-time BAFTA award-winning Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, the No.1 selling DmC: Devil May Cry, Develop Award winning Enslaved Odyssey to the West and BAFTA nominated Heavenly Sword.We're proud to have worked with a long list of collaborators from creative industries outside of video games, including Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong, The Hobbit), Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later), Nitin Sawhney (BBC’s Human Planet), Noisia (Split The Atom) and Combichrist (Making Monsters). As well as partnering with talent from the world of music, literature and film, Ninja Theory pioneered the use of Performance Capture in video games.

Ninja Theory

Technical Artist (Senior and above)

Principal Gameplay Animator

As a Technical Artist (Senior and above) at Ninja Theory, you'll be responsible for creating, maintaining, and enhancing production tools and workflows for character art, rigging, and animation teams.  This involves designing and developing user-friendly tools in Maya, Motion Builder, and Unreal Engine 5 to streamline workflows. You'll collaborate closely with other departments to ensure consistency between DCC packages and Unreal, developing automated solutions for efficient data processing.  Responsibilities include knowledge sharing, documentation, peer code reviews, troubleshooting, Shotgrid pipeline maintenance, and optimizing character and animation performance.  The role requires strong problem-solving, 3D math understanding, and pipeline development expertise, particularly for Maya and Motion Builder. You'll be working on enhancing workflows from DCC to Unreal through automation and building runtime character systems.

Location: You’ll be based in our Cambridge studio with the option for hybrid working so being within a commutable distance is essential. If this requires you to relocate, we offer visa sponsorship and relocation assistance.Level: Senior and above.About us: Ninja Theory is a five-time BAFTA award winning games company based in Cambridge, UK, and part of Xbox Game Studios. Our diverse and welcoming team values collaboration, quality, and excellence. We strive to maintain an inclusive culture that empowers deep focus, rewards creativity, and supports personal and professional growth.Our Mission is: To Craft Life-changing Art with Game-changing Tech and we are committed to bringing together the best talent in the industry help us fulfil that promise.Our Values: Greatness through Excellence, Teamwork &amp; Integrity.Your Role: You will create, maintain, and enhance production tools and workflows for character art, rigging, and animation teams, collaborating closely with other Technical Artists to refine internal processes. You will design and develop user-friendly tools within Maya, Motion Builder, and Unreal Engine 5 to streamline workflows across all the disciplines working on characters. Additionally, you will work closely with other departments to ensure consistency between DCC packages and Unreal, while developing automated solutions to process data efficiently for optimised user workflows. You will share knowledge and write clear documentation for tools and workflows, take part to peer code reviews; help troubleshoot and resolve issues impacting animators and maintain the Shotgrid pipeline and data management system. Your work will focus on enhancing workflows from DCC to Unreal through automation as well as building runtime character systems and holding responsibility over optimisation of character and animation performance costs.RequirementsWe believe that skills and experience are not mutually exclusive. For that reason, we encourage you to apply even if you feel you don't meet 100% of the desirable requirements listed below.Your Skill: You bring strong problem-solving abilities, a solid understanding of 3D math (including linear algebra, vectors, and matrices), and the capability to develop and maintain pipelines and tools, particularly for Maya and Motion Builder. You are comfortable with version control systems like Perforce, adhere to established protocols, and have the potential to stand out with knowledge of Houdini scripting and toolsEssential:<ul><li>Extensive experience of developing tools and pipelines for Maya and Motion Builder.</li><li>Strong Python, Maya API, PyQt and C++ skills, with the ability to write clear, well-structured, and documented code.</li><li>Good communication skills.</li><li>Strong problem-solving skills and ability to think outside the box.</li><li>Enjoy working both independently and as part of a team.</li></ul>Desirable:<ul><li>Experience developing ShotGrid Apps, REST API or Web Dev experience. Basic Database Knowledge (SQL, NoSQL, or ShotGrid entity relationships)</li><li>Knowledge of Houdini scripting and tools.</li><li>Familiarity with mGear</li></ul>Your Experience: You have relevant experience creating character and animation pipelines and tools, with expertise in Maya and Motion Builder. You are skilled in Python, C++, PyQt, and Maya API, with a strong understanding of character art, rigging, and animation-related tools and systems.Essential:<ul><li>Maya.</li><li>Motion Builder.</li></ul>Desirable:<ul><li>Unreal Engine 5.</li><li>ShotGrid Apps.</li><li>Experience with REST APIs, database knowledge, and automation would be a valuable addition.</li><li>Experience in creating DCC tools for Substance Painter &amp; Designer, Blender or Zbrush</li></ul>BenefitsOur Benefits: We offer wide-ranging benefits, including, but not limited to:<ul><li>Hybrid, flexible work model with no fixed working hours.</li><li>5 weeks holiday plus 1 additional day for each year of service up to a maximum of 33 days per annum, plus bank holidays.</li><li>Enhanced family leave.</li><li>Bonus scheme.</li><li>Annual wellbeing allowance.</li><li>Private healthcare including medical, dental, and optical cover.</li><li>Mentoring and career development.</li><li>Income protection.</li><li>Life Insurance.</li><li>Where applicable, relocation assistance and visa sponsorship.</li></ul>Working from Ninja House, you will benefit from our custom-built studio which offers a luxurious setting with cutting-edge facilities at your fingertips, including full motion capture stage. You’ll also receive complimentary catered lunch from our on-site pub, The Bird or Worm?Our Process: To ensure a fair and inclusive hiring process which aligns to our studio equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&amp;I) strategy, we use anonymised screening which automatically obscures personal identifying information from applications, helping to reduce unconscious bias from the start.Where possible, we kindly ask that you submit anonymised reels/portfolios to support our ED&amp;I commitments.This advert closes on Monday 3rd March 2025