Lead Gameplay Tech Animator — Unreal Engine Expert

Epic Games; California (MO); On-site; USD 150,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Epic Games is seeking a Lead Gameplay Technical Animator with a passion for expressive character movement to join our team. You'll collaborate with veteran and emerging artists across disciplines to influence workflows, tools, and Unreal Engine 5 pipelines.

You will mentor rigging-focused animators, rig characters, weapons, creatures, and vehicles, and set up assets in Unreal Engine 5, including control rigs and blueprints.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience rigging characters in Maya and/or Unreal Engine.
• Portfolio showing rigging for bipeds, creatures, bodies and faces.
• Attention to aesthetic detail in deformation and physics movement.
• Familiarity with the Unreal Engine 5 art pipeline.
• Strong written communication and teamwork skills.
• Control Rig experience a plus.
• Python programming is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with technical animators and leads to ensure assets are production-ready.
• Drive alignment on strategy for technical animation and adjacent teams.
• Schedule, prioritize, and delegate assets internally and to vendors.
• Coordinate with animators, modelers, and designers for a smooth pipeline.
• Improve pipeline tools with engine and project leads.
• Mentor rigging-focused technicians.
• Rig characters, weapons, creatures, and vehicles.
• Set up assets in Unreal Engine 5 with control rigs and blueprints.
• Maintain documentation and references for asset production.

Skills

Rigging characters

Unreal Engine experience

Maya experience

Portfolio of rigging

Strong communication

Teamwork

Problem solving

Control Rig

Python

Tools

Maya

Unreal Engine

Python

Job description

Epic Games is seeking a Lead Gameplay Technical Animator with a passion for expressive character movement to join our team. You'll collaborate with veteran and emerging artists across disciplines to influence workflows, tools, and Unreal Engine 5 pipelines.

You will mentor rigging-focused animators, rig characters, weapons, creatures, and vehicles, and set up assets in Unreal Engine 5, including control rigs and blueprints.