Senior Technical Animator - Studio Elevation (Remote within the UK)

nDreams; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading VR game studio is seeking a Senior Technical Animator to develop and maintain animation systems while collaborating closely with animators and engineers. This role offers the opportunity to mentor junior team members and contribute to innovative projects in a fully remote setting. Strong experience with game engines, scripting, and animation principles is essential. The studio fosters a diverse and respectful work culture and offers flexible hours, health insurance, and personal development time.

Benefits

Flexible hours

Duvet days

Birthday off

Dedicated personal development time

Health insurance

Pension scheme

Qualifications

• Experience with game animation systems essential.
• Strong scripting skills in Python or MEL required.
• Solid understanding of rigging and animation principles needed.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain animation systems and tools.
• Collaborate with animation and engineering teams.
• Troubleshoot technical animation issues.

Skills

Experience with animation systems in game engines (e.g., Unreal, Unity)

Proficiency in Python, MEL, or similar scripting languages

Solid understanding of rigging, skinning, and animation principles

Experience with DCC tools like Maya or MotionBuilder

Excellent problem-solving and communication skills

Job description

We are looking for a highly skilled and collaborative Senior Technical Animator to bridge the gap between animation and engineering. You’ll bring deep technical expertise, a passion for animation systems, and a proactive mindset to help deliver smooth, expressive character performances across our projects.

In this role, you will work closely with animators, riggers, and engineers to develop and maintain animation systems, tools, and workflows. You’ll play a key role in ensuring animation content is efficiently integrated into the engine, while mentoring junior team members and driving technical innovation.

The rundown:

• 12-month fixed term contract

• Full time (37.5 hours per week)

• Fully remote within the UK

• Salary is competitive and dependent on experience

Key responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain animation systems, tools, and pipelines.

• Collaborate with animation and engineering teams to ensure seamless integration.

• Troubleshoot and resolve technical animation issues.

• Optimize animation performance across platforms.

• Support rigging and skinning workflows where needed.

• Mentor junior technical animators and share best practices.

• Contribute to long-term planning of animation tech and tools.

Requirements

The skills you’ll need:

• Experience with animation systems in game engines (e.g., Unreal, Unity).

• Proficiency in Python, MEL, or similar scripting languages.

• Solid understanding of rigging, skinning, and animation principles.

• Experience with DCC tools like Maya or MotionBuilder.

• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.

The nice to haves:

• Experience with procedural animation or motion matching.

• Familiarity with character physics and IK systems.

• Knowledge of version control systems (e.g., Perforce, Git).

• Background in mentoring or leading technical animation effort

Benefits

We are nDreams – we develop and publish the world’s most immersive VR games. You may know us as the developer behind Synapse, Phantom: Covert Ops, Fracked, and Frenzies. As a publisher, we have also supported the release of other studio’s titles including Little Cities, PowerWash Simulator VR, and Vendetta Forever. With humble beginnings as an independent studio, we combine amazing projects with a personal, caring touch. We’ve got more incredible titles to be announced soon!

We believe the best workplaces and games are created by diverse, happy and safe teams. We're committed to building a culture centred on respect, wellbeing and balance. It's crucial we make our games and industry more accessible to underrepresented communities. We strive to live this through the people we hire, the experiences we create and the causes we support.

We want everyone to have the opportunity to bring their best, authentic self to work. Please let us know if you require reasonable adjustments during the interview process by emailing [e-mail] or speaking to your nDreams recruiter. For more information about reasonable adjustments, check out this guidance from Scope.

We offer great perks, including flexible hours, duvets days, your birthday off, dedicated personal development time and support, as well as regular socials. Beyond this, there’s an excellent holiday offering, pension scheme, health insurance, life cover and much more.