Lead Avatar Development

HUMAN-AI-Z Nexus Technology; Dubai; On-site; AED 300,000 - 600,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Multidisciplinary team

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

HUMAN-AI-Z Nexus Technology is seeking an Avatar Development Lead to direct the end-to-end creation of high‑fidelity digital avatars for AI-powered applications and immersive environments. You will guide concept, modeling, animation, and behavior while aligning technical and creative goals.

You will collaborate with AI, voice, and engineering teams to ensure believable characters across platforms, including real-time rendering and interactive experiences.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Digital Media, Animation, or related field; equivalent experience considered.
• 5–7 years in digital character/avatar development, animation, or virtual production.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary avatar projects.
• Understanding of avatar production pipeline from concept to deployment.
• Fluency in English; other languages are a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end avatar development from concept to production and refinement.
• Define visual direction, appearance, personality, and movement language for avatars.
• Set development standards for anatomy, facial features, clothing, hair, materials, and animation.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary teams across design, 3D, AI, and software engineering.
• Oversee asset creation, facial expressions, motion capture, and real-time integration.
• Collaborate with AI and voice teams to ensure consistent avatar identity and behavior.
• Manage workflows for real-time rendering, XR, and interactive platforms.
• Maintain documentation, design systems, and production guidelines.
• Identify bottlenecks and drive improvements across the pipeline.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Project management

English fluency

Problem solving

Attention to detail

Multitasking

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree (Digital Media, Animation, Computer Graphics, or related)

Tools

Unreal Engine

Unity

Blender

Maya

ZBrush

MetaHuman

Character Creator

Job description

Job Title: Avatar Development Lead — 1 Position

About the Job

We are seeking an experienced and creative Avatar Development Lead to lead the design, development, and evolution of high-quality digital avatars for AI-powered applications, virtual environments, immersive experiences, entertainment, education, digital media, and interactive platforms. The successful candidate will oversee the full avatar development lifecycle, from concept and visual identity through modeling, appearance, animation, expression, voice, behavior, interaction, and technical implementation. This is a hands‑on leadership role working closely with character designers, 3D artists, animators, AI specialists, developers, technical artists, voice and performance teams, and creative directors to establish compelling, consistent, expressive, and technically reliable digital avatars.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end‑to‑end development of digital avatars from initial concept through production, testing, deployment, and continuous refinement.
• Establish avatar concepts, identities, visual direction, appearance, personality characteristics, movement language, and overall digital presence.
• Define development standards and creative guidelines for avatar appearance, anatomy, facial features, clothing, hair, materials, expressions, gestures, and animation.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary teams involved in avatar development, including character artists, 3D artists, animators, AI specialists, developers, technical artists, voice professionals, and performance teams.
• Oversee the creation and integration of high-quality 3D avatar assets, including models, textures, materials, hair, clothing, accessories, and facial systems.
• Guide the development of facial expressions, eye movement, gestures, posture, body language, and other elements required for believable digital performance.
• Collaborate with AI teams to integrate conversational, behavioral, emotional, and adaptive capabilities into avatars.
• Work with voice and speech teams to ensure that voice identity, speech patterns, tone, timing, and delivery are consistent with the avatar's character.
• Coordinate animation, motion capture, facial capture, performance capture, and AI-assisted animation workflows.
• Define avatar interaction and performance requirements for different platforms, audiences, and use cases.
• Evaluate avatar prototypes and production outputs for visual quality, realism, consistency, expressiveness, performance, and technical stability.
• Establish quality‑control processes and review standards across the avatar development pipeline.
• Identify production bottlenecks, technical limitations, visual inconsistencies, and experience issues and coordinate appropriate solutions.
• Research and evaluate emerging technologies in AI avatars, generative AI, digital humans, real‑time rendering, character systems, motion capture, facial animation, and virtual production.
• Develop and improve scalable workflows for creating and maintaining multiple avatars across different platforms and applications.
• Collaborate with engineering and technical teams to ensure avatars are optimized for real‑time applications, interactive environments, games, XR, virtual spaces, and AI-powered platforms.
• Manage development priorities, milestones, dependencies, and deliverables across avatar projects.
• Maintain avatar documentation, design systems, technical specifications, production guidelines, and version histories.
• Participate in user testing, creative reviews, technical evaluations, and iterative development cycles.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Digital Media, Animation, Character Design, Computer Graphics, Game Development, Visual Effects, Interactive Media, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field; equivalent professional experience will also be considered.
• At least 5–7 years of professional experience in digital character development, avatar development, digital humans, animation, 3D, VFX, games, virtual production, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated experience leading or coordinating multidisciplinary digital character or avatar development projects.
• Strong understanding of the complete avatar production pipeline, from concept and modeling through animation, performance, integration, and deployment.
• Strong understanding of human anatomy, facial structure, expression, movement, gesture, posture, and visual communication.
• Experience with 3D character creation, digital sculpting, texturing, materials, rigging, animation, or related workflows.
• Familiarity with technologies such as Unreal Engine, Unity, Blender, Maya, ZBrush, Meta Human, Character Creator, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with motion capture, facial capture, performance capture, facial animation, or real‑time character systems.
• Strong understanding of AI-assisted character creation, generative AI, conversational AI, AI agents, or intelligent avatar systems.
• Understanding of real‑time rendering, virtual production, XR, spatial computing, or interactive digital environments is highly desirable.
• Strong leadership, communication, coordination, and decision‑making skills.
• Ability to translate creative objectives into clear technical and production requirements.
• Strong problem‑solving skills and the ability to evaluate new technologies and integrate appropriate solutions into production workflows.
• Excellent attention to detail and a strong sense of visual, technical, and experiential quality.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, teams, deadlines, and development stages simultaneously.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating relevant avatar, virtual human, digital character, 3D, animation, AI, VFX, XR, game, or interactive projects.
• Fluency in English; additional languages are an asset.

What We Offer

• The opportunity to lead the development of innovative avatars and AI‑powered digital characters.
• A multidisciplinary environment combining AI, digital art, 3D, animation, performance, XR, and interactive technologies.
• The opportunity to establish new approaches and production standards for avatar and digital human development.
• Collaboration with AI specialists, developers, character artists, animators, technical artists, performance professionals, and creative directors.
• Access to emerging AI, real‑time, digital human, avatar, and immersive technologies.
• Opportunities to lead high‑visibility avatar, virtual character, digital human, and immersive experience projects.
• Professional development opportunities in a rapidly evolving technology and creative field.
• Competitive compensation based on experience and project responsibilities.