Prinicipal Gameplay Animation Engineer

2K Games; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

2K Games in Vancouver, BC is seeking an experienced Gameplay Systems Engineer to drive tooling, performance, and workflow improvements for the gameplay team. You will collaborate with AI and Animation engineers, designers, and artists to enhance pipelines and enable efficient development across multi-platform titles.

The role focuses on building robust toolchains, profiling performance, and mentoring colleagues.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in a similar position.
• Expertise with the C++ programming language and software architecture.
• Experience with version control systems and animation management.
• Experience creating systems, tools and assets for projects.

Responsibilities

• Provide software and tools support to Engineers, Production and Artists.
• Develop toolsets enabling rapid iteration and diagnostic workflows.
• Collaborate with AI/Animation teams to improve pipelines and tooling.
• Debug and triage low-level issues and optimize performance.
• Mentor team members and write/maintain documentation.

Skills

C++

Multi-platform

Problem-solving

Communication skills

Tools

Perforce

Unreal Engine

Job description

Who We Are

2K Games is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). Founded in 2005, 2K Games is a global video game company, publishing titles developed by some of the most influential game development studios in the world. Our studios responsible for developing 2K’s portfolio of world-class games across multiple platforms, include Visual Concepts, Firaxis, Hangar 13, CatDaddy, Cloud Chamber, 31st Union, and HB Studios. Our portfolio of titles is expanding due to our global strategic plan, building and acquiring exciting studios whose content continues to inspire all of us! 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including sports, shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, casual, and family entertainment.

Located in Vancouver, BC, 2K Sports Lab is a small collective being formed within 2K Games that is driving the research and development of future sports interactive entertainment programs. Within this group, speculative work will be done on future sports games with an eye towards taking the magic of 2K’s publishing and development expertise and applying them to future opportunities.

Our team of engineers, marketers, artists, writers, data scientists, producers, thinkers and doers, are the professional publishing stewards of our growing library of critically-acclaimed franchises such as NBA 2K, 2K PGA, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Lego Drive, BioShock, Borderlands, The Quarry, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, WWE 2K, and XCOM.

At 2K, we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We encourage ALL applicants to explore our global positions, even if they don’t meet every requirement for the role. If you're interested in the job and think you have what it takes to work at 2K, we encourage you to apply.

What We Need

Our studio is looking for an experienced Gameplay Systems Engineer who values efficiency, productivity and the satisfaction that comes from helping a team do their best work. We’re seeking someone who has a passion for solving complex problems, a deep understanding of Systems, Tools and Pipeline engineering, a high level understanding of Animation, and AI Engineering, and the drive to improve workflows, optimize code, and engineer solutions to achieve results that enable the game and team to reach their full potential.

In this role, you will be working closely with the Gameplay Technical Director, as well as collaborating with the AI and Animation Engineering teams, Animators and Designers to help develop the workflows, architecture and tools that will enable the Gameplay team to do its best work.

What You’ll Do

• Provide software and tools support to Engineers, Production and Artists.
• Develop Toolset that will enable rapid iteration, efficient and accurate diagnosis and investigation into the workings of the game, Automation and testing tools, data management for assets, and you may design and implement user-interfaces to support these toolsets.
• Communicate cross-discipline and provide innovative solutions to pipeline and testbed issues.
• Troubleshoot technical issues and provide user support for the team.
• Debug and/or triage low level issues like Crashes, Hangs and Desynchs.
• Own and run performance profiling for both cycles and memory, and devise and execute plans for optimizations.
• Develop comprehensive knowledge of architecture and gameplay subsystems to enable you to manage the efficiency of the gameplay frame with respect to parallelization and multithreading.
• Develop Automation toolsets to support testing for both performance and quality.
• Manage Branching strategies and integrations between branches.
• Contribute to the development and evolution of standards and conventions.
• Mentor other systems team members.
• Write and maintain documentation.

What Will Make You A Great Fit

• 7+ years of experience in a similar position.
• Experience developing multi-platform projects.
• Expertise with the C++ programming language along with strong coding architectural design principles
• Experience researching, piloting, and rolling out new techniques.
• Experience in designing and creating systems, tools and assets for projects.
• Experience with version control system (Perforce), and animation management systems.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

Beneficial Qualifications

• Experience developing multi-platform projects.
• Online/Networking experience for synchronized sports games.
• Experience in Unreal Engine is a big plus.
• Experience creating GUIs for tools.
• Passion for video games (not just ours)

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform their essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us if you need reasonable accommodation.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.