Senior Technical Animator: Real-Time Animation (Remote)

Placements24; Queenstown; Remote; NZD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Remote-first environment

Cutting-edge projects

Collaborative culture

Industry-leading tools

Impact on character animations

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Senior Technical Animator to join a globally distributed, remote-first team. You will bridge animation and technical implementation, building robust animation systems, optimizing assets, and collaborating with animators, riggers and engineers to deliver high-quality character performances in real-time engines.

You will work with Unreal Engine or Unity, develop pipelines for mocap cleanup and retargeting, and ensure assets meet performance targets across platforms.

Qualifications

• Significant experience as a Technical Animator in real-time applications.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating animation systems, rigging and engine integration.
• Proficiency with Unreal Engine or Unity and their animation systems (Blueprints, State Machines, Blend Spaces).
• Strong understanding of animation principles, character rigging and skinning.
• Experience with Python for tooling and automation.
• Knowledge of motion capture pipelines.
• Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills.
• Strong communication and collaboration, especially in a remote team.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement complex animation systems and logic within game engines (Unreal/Unity).
• Optimize animation assets for performance and memory usage.
• Collaborate with animators to ensure technical requirements are met and integration is smooth.
• Work with riggers to define and refine character rigs for performance and control.
• Create and maintain documentation for animation pipelines, tools and best practices.
• Develop motion capture data cleanup and retargeting pipelines.
• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues related to animation, rigging, and engine integration.
• Prototype and implement advanced animation techniques and features.
• Stay up-to-date with real-time animation tech and tools.

Skills

Technical Animator

Portfolio

Unreal Engine / Unity

Animation systems

Rigging

Engine integration

Python scripting

Motion capture

Problem solving

Remote collaboration

Education

Degree in Computer Animation or Game Development

Tools

Unreal Engine

Unity

Python

Job description

Placements24 is seeking a Senior Technical Animator to join a globally distributed, remote-first team. You will bridge animation and technical implementation, building robust animation systems, optimizing assets, and collaborating with animators, riggers and engineers to deliver high-quality character performances in real-time engines.

You will work with Unreal Engine or Unity, develop pipelines for mocap cleanup and retargeting, and ensure assets meet performance targets across platforms.