We are actively looking for a world-class Animation Engineer to work on in-engine content workflow/pipeline work to support designers and artists in the production of character behavior and performance. This is for a narrative-driven AAA game in Bellevue, WA. This studio is going to be shipping original IP that has not been announced.

This role will be responsible for building motion and facial syncing systems for unreal engine 4 next generation of animation and storytelling. The right person is going to be passionate about cross-collaboration between animation artists and engineers using an Animation Blueprint to bring characters and action-play to life.

The candidate would bring their deep understanding of blend trees, state machines, and procedural animation techniques into an environment of robust cross-discipline collaboration where they will breathe life into a diverse cast of character species and personalities.

What will you be doing in this role:

• Build optimized, sustainable and maintainable technologies to help solve game driven animation problems

• Implement tools and pipelines integrating with game systems for the rapid creation and iteration of animation content

• Work closely with designers, artists, and other engineers to ensure a great player experience

• Work with the animators and technical artists to support their needs and ensure a powerful and easy workflow

• Build Facial Syncing Systems for next-generation animation and storytelling.

What are the requirements to be considered for the position:

• 5+ years’ experience in game programming, including experience working on at least one AAA shipped title

• Advanced C++ programming, blueprint, and scripting languages.

• Strong Knowledge of animation techniques (i.e. Motion capture, facial morphing, procedural and inverse kinematics.)

• Experience with physics, 3D Graphics & Rendering, AI, Player Systems, Cameras, Networking, or Tools programming.

• Comfortable defining how animations are organized and played back in-game

• Experience with engineering highly optimized networked animation and game systems

• Experience with blend tree systems

• Experience with low-level animation constructs: compression, blending, and posing

• Strong experience with various data structures and algorithms

• Strong mathematics skills including proficiency using trigonometry and linear algebra

Here are some extras that would be nice, but not required:

• Multi-threading and optimization

• Client-server game development

• Game physics

• Wide range of PC hardware and console platforms

• Version control systems: Git, Perforce, or Subversion