Senior Technical Animator

Kinetic Games; Southampton; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Kinetic Games, a burgeoning video game studio in Southampton, is seeking a Senior Technical Animator to elevate their horror game Phasmophobia. The role demands expertise in creating high-quality animations, collaborating closely with teams, and optimizing workflows within Unity to ensure a seamless player experience.

Benefits

5% Employer Match Pension Scheme

Flexitime

Opportunity to travel to events

Relocation Package

Annual performance bonus

Employee of the month vouchers

Personal wellbeing allowance

Referral Scheme

Sabbatical Leave

Vitality Health Insurance

Aviva Life Insurance

30 days holiday

Qualifications

• Experience with at least one shipped Unity title.
• Proficient in implementing animation systems within Unity.
• Solid understanding of real-time animation principles.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain character and object rigs.
• Implement animation systems within Unity.
• Optimize animations for performance across platforms.

Skills

Rigging

Skinning

Animation Control Systems

3D Software (Blender, Maya)

C#

Problem-solving

Collaboration

Knowledge of Phasmophobia

Education

Professional experience as a Technical Animator

Tools

Unity

Git

Perforce

Plastic

Job description

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

About the Role:

We are looking for an experienced and highly skilled Senior Technical Animator to join our team. As a Senior Technical Animator, you will play a crucial role in bringing characters, creatures, and environmental elements to life with high-quality, efficient animation systems. You will work closely with artists, designers and programmers to develop robust rigs, create fluid animation workflows, and implement animations directly into Unity. Your technical expertise will ensure that our animations look great, feel responsive, and perform well across multiple platforms.

Responsibilities:

• Design, create, and maintain complex character, creature, camera and object rigs that are efficient, flexible, and easy to use.
• Implement and maintain animation systems and state machines within Unity, ensuring smooth and polished in-game animations.
• Develop tools to streamline animation pipelines and workflows.
• Work closely with artists and programmers to troubleshoot rigging, skinning, and implementation challenges.
• Collaborate with the programming team to define and improve the animation pipeline and runtime animation systems.
• Optimize animations for performance across PC, VR, PSVR2, and consoles.
• Ensure that animations meet technical standards for gameplay responsiveness and visual fidelity.

Requirements:

• Professional experience as a Technical Animator or similar role on at least one shipped Unity title.
• Expertise with rigging, skinning, and creating animation control systems in a 3D software package (e.g., Blender, Maya).
• Strong experience implementing animation systems within Unity, including Animator Controllers, State Machines, and Blend Trees.
• Proficient in C# and tool development.
• Solid understanding of real-time animation principles, constraints, IK systems, and retargeting techniques.
• Strong problem-solving skills, especially when balancing visual quality with performance.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to work independently and proactively in a fast-paced environment.
• Passion for horror games.
• Knowledge and experience playing Phasmophobia.
• Eligibility to work in the UK.

Nice To Have

• Experience with VR animation challenges (especially for hand and body tracking).
• Knowledge of motion matching, procedural animation, or physics-based animation systems.
• Experience with Unity DOTS or animation optimization techniques.
• Familiarity with facial animation and lip-sync pipelines.
• Experience with version control systems such as Git, Perforce and Plastic.
• 5% Employer Match Pension Scheme
• Flexitime
• Opportunity to travel to events such as GDC, Gamescom, Twitch Con EU & US, EGX and Develop Brighton
• Relocation Package
• Annual performance bonus
• Employee of the month vouchers
• Personal wellbeing allowance
• Referral Scheme
• Sabbatical Leave
• Vitality Health Insurance that includes Vision, Dental and Travel
• Aviva Life Insurance
• 30 days holiday including birthday and wellbeing day

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Design, Art/Creative, and Information Technology

• Industries

  Computer Games

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