Senior Technical Animator

JR United Kingdom; Portsmouth; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A growing video game studio is seeking a Senior Technical Animator in Portsmouth. The successful candidate will collaborate on advanced rigs and animations for their horror game, ensuring high-quality visual performance and responsiveness across platforms, including PC and VR.

Benefits

Pension

Flexitime

Travel Opportunities

Relocation Package

Bonuses

Health Insurance

Qualifications

• Experience with rigging and implementing animation systems in Unity.
• Proficient in C# and tools development.
• Strong communication and teamwork skills.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain complex rigs for characters and environments.
• Implement animation systems and optimize for multi-platform performance.
• Collaborate with teams to troubleshoot and enhance workflows.

Skills

Rigging

Animation Control

Problem-solving

Teamwork

Education

Experience as a Technical Animator

Tools

Unity

Blender

Maya

C#

Git

Job description

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Senior Technical Animator, Portsmouth, Hampshire

Client: Kinetic Games

Location: Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Job Category: Other

EU work permit required: Yes

Job Views: 2

Posted: 04.06.2025

Expiry Date: 19.07.2025

Job Description:

About the Company:

Kinetic Games is a new video game development studio based in Southampton. We are a passionate team of developers using Unity to improve and expand the horror experience of Phasmophobia, available on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

About the Role:

We are seeking an experienced Senior Technical Animator to join our team. In this role, you will be responsible for creating high-quality, efficient animation systems for characters, creatures, and environmental elements. You will collaborate with artists, designers, and programmers to develop rigs, animation workflows, and implement animations in Unity, ensuring they look great, feel responsive, and perform well across platforms.

Responsibilities:

• Design, create, and maintain complex rigs for characters, creatures, cameras, and objects that are efficient and easy to use.
• Implement and maintain animation systems and state machines within Unity.
• Develop tools to improve animation pipelines and workflows.
• Collaborate with artists and programmers to troubleshoot rigging, skinning, and implementation issues.
• Work with the programming team to optimize animation pipelines and systems.
• Optimize animations for performance on PC, VR, PSVR2, and consoles.
• Ensure animations meet standards for responsiveness and visual fidelity.

Requirements:

• Experience as a Technical Animator or similar role on at least one shipped Unity game.
• Proficiency with rigging, skinning, and creating animation controls in software like Blender or Maya.
• Experience implementing animation systems in Unity, including Animator Controllers, State Machines, and Blend Trees.
• Proficiency in C# and tool development.
• Understanding of real-time animation principles, IK systems, and retargeting.
• Strong problem-solving skills balancing quality and performance.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
• Passion for horror games and familiarity with Phasmophobia.
• Eligibility to work in the UK.

Nice To Have:

• Experience with VR animation challenges.
• Knowledge of motion matching, procedural, or physics-based animation systems.
• Experience with Unity DOTS or animation optimization.
• Familiarity with facial animation and lip-sync pipelines.
• Experience with version control systems like Git, Perforce, or Plastic.
• Additional benefits include pension, flexitime, travel opportunities, relocation package, bonuses, health insurance, and more.