Lead Character Tools Engineer

Sony Interactive Entertainment; United States; Hybrid; USD 144,000 - 216,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Wellness program

Employee discounts for Sony products

Job summary

Sony Interactive Entertainment’s PlayStation Central Technology team seeks a Lead Character Tools Engineer to develop, prototype, and deploy tools for character creation, rigging, and animation pipelines. You will collaborate with artists, engineers, and stakeholders to streamline workflows, integrate AI/ML advancements, and ensure robust runtime performance across PlayStation titles.

Applicants should have 10+ years in game development, a BS in CS or related field, strong C++ and Python skills,

Qualifications

• BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Graphic Art, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Capable of writing and debugging C++.
• Excellent knowledge of Maya with rigging knowledge.
• Strong Python programming skills; PyQt/PySide experience.
• Experience with MotionBuilder, Maya, Houdini; HLSL/MaterialX knowledge.
• Experience with Perforce, Git, Confluence; familiarity with CI/CD.
• Experience leveraging Agentic AI models; strong problem solving.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with internal team members and studio stakeholders to prototype and harden create tools considering contemporary development workflows, data management, art creation, animation, and game engine integration
• Setting up and maintaining project specific environments and automation opportunities
• Learning and supporting varying client working environments, assets, and tools
• Writing, maintaining, and customizing internal tools and workflows
• Building and maintaining technical documentation
• Willingness to attend and participate in PlayStation internal demonstrations and conferences, travel required
• Ability to work in a collaborative team environment as well as self-driven experimentation and research

Skills

C++

Python

Agentic AI

Education

BS degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Maya

MotionBuilder

Houdini

HLSL

MaterialX

PyQt/PySide

Perforce

Git

Confluence

Job description

Why Sony Interactive Entertainment?

Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we’re part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity.

Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we’re part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity.

Why Sony Interactive Entertainment?

Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we’re part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity.

Why PlayStation?

PlayStation isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Today, we’re recognized as a global leader in entertainment producing The PlayStation family of products and services including PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®VR, PlayStation®Plus, acclaimed PlayStation software titles from PlayStation Studios, and more.

PlayStation also strives to create an inclusive environment that empowers employees and embraces diversity. We welcome and encourage everyone who has a passion and curiosity for innovation, technology, and play to explore our open positions and join our growing global team.

The PlayStation brand falls under Sony Interactive Entertainment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation.

We are seeking a Lead Character Tools Engineer to join the PlayStation Central Technology team focusing on Character technology from creation, rigging, and animation. Developing and distributing tools and optimizing for making the best characters in games more efficiently and integrating emergent technology into the future of game making.

Candidate expected to prototype, create, and collaborate to deploy and maintain technical tools and practices from experience on traditional game development and run-time workflows with internal teams and seek new opportunities for bringing increased usage of AI and ML to make those processes more efficient.

This internal team of artists, engineers, and technical artists partner with engineering teams, studio stakeholders, research engineers, and other Central Technology groups to provide cohesion and standardization across PSS activities.

This position requires a demonstratable understanding of game development pipelines, extensive experience with Autodesk Maya software, and strong programming skills. Familiarity with leveraging agentic workflows to accelerate code creation and testing.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with internal team members and studio stakeholders to prototype and harden create tools considering contemporary development workflows, data management, art creation, animation, and game engine integration
• Setting up and maintaining project specific environments and automation opportunities
• Learning and supporting varying client working environments, assets, and tools
• Writing, maintaining, and customizing internal tools and workflows
• Building and maintaining technical documentation
• Willingness to attend and participate in PlayStation internal demonstrations and conferences, travel required
• Ability to work in a collaborative team environment as well as self-driven experimentation and research

Core Experience:

• Experience as technical artist or engineer to develop and deploy tools to support character creation, rigging, simulation, or animation pipelines in a run-time environment
• 10+ years in a game development studio or previous experience creating artist-facing tools on technical art or engineering team in a production environment
• BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Graphic Art, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• Extensive experience in working with game editors and excellent working knowledge of technical specifications of workflow from DCC to complex real-time environments
• Capable of writing and debugging C++
• Excellent knowledge of Maya with general knowledge of Maya rigging
• Developing or maintaining project pipeline tools and system environments
• Excellent troubleshooting skills and the ability to creatively solve problems
• Experience leveraging Agentic AI models
• Strong understanding of deformation and mesh processing
• Familiarity with industry trends in character rigging, gameplay animation, cinematic animation, deformation and simulation usage in character animation pipelines
• Decent sense of humor

Extended Experience:

• Strong Python programming skills and experience with PyQt/Pyside
• Motionbuilder, Maya, Houdini, experience
• Experience with HLSL, MaterialX
• Experience with other programming languages, especially C++.
• Experience with Perforce, Git, Confluence
• Exposure to photogrammetry, motion capture/performance capture

In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products.

This role also may be eligible for a bonus package.

At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.

Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

The estimated base pay range for this role is listed below.

$143,700—$215,500 USD

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

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Equal Opportunity Statement:

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or parental status, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is a Fair Chance employer and qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered for employment.