Lead Technical Animator

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

WHAT MAKES US EPIC?

At the core of Epic's success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it's building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we're always innovating.

Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We're constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.

ART

What We Do

Push your artistic talent to the limit on a team of world-class environment, character and concept artists who strive to innovate and inspire.

What You'll Do

Epic Games is searching for a Lead Gameplay Technical Animator with a passion for expressive character movement to join our team. In this talented team of veteran and emerging artists, you'll collaborate across teams and contribute directly to Fortnite and other initiatives as part of our collaboration with Disney. Joining this team means you're motivated to seek solutions to problems and work with other disciplines to make positive changes to workflows, tools, and technologies that directly impact Gameplay.

In this role, you will

• Work closely with technical animators, Leads, Directors, and Outsource Managers on the team to ensure assets are set up for success in the different stages of production
• Communicate and drive alignment around strategy for technical animation and adjacent gameplay teams
• Work with production to schedule, prioritize, and delegate assets for the team, both internal and vendor
• Work closely with animators, modelers, and designers to ensure a smooth development pipeline that delivers high-quality assets
• Assisting with pipeline tools and working with engine and project leads on the continuous improvement of those engine tools
• Mentor rigging-focused technical animators
• Rigging characters, weapons, creatures, and vehicles
• Setting up assets in Unreal Engine 5; including control rigs, cloth, physics, and blueprints
• Maintain detailed documentation, video reference, and examples of art asset production, procedures, and engine requirements to support internal and external artists

What we're looking for

• Extensive experience rigging characters in Maya and/or Unreal Engine
• A portfolio demonstrating rigging for a range of characters, bipeds, and creatures, both body and faces
• Attention to aesthetic detail, especially with regard to character deformation and physics movement
• Familiarity with the Unreal Engine 5 art pipeline
• A positive individual with strong written communication and teamwork skills
• Exceptional problem-solver
• Control Rig experience a plus
• Python programming is a plus
• You're user-focused, passionate, solutions-focused, and innovative. These traits equal success at Epic and influence everything we do

This role is open to multiple locations across the US (including CA, NYC, & WA).

Pay Transparency Information

The expected annual base pay range(s) for this position are detailed below. Each base pay range is relevant only for individuals who are residents of or will be expected to work within the specified locale. Compensation varies based on a variety of factors, which include (but aren’t limited to) things such as skills and competencies, qualifications, knowledge, and experience. In addition to base pay, most employees are eligible to participate in Epic’s generous benefit plans and discretionary incentive programs (subject to the terms of those plans or programs).

New York City Base Pay Range$189,482—$277,906 USDCalifornia Base Pay Range$166,744—$244,558 USDWashington Base Pay Range$151,585—$222,324 USD

ABOUT US

Epic Games is a leading interactive entertainment company. For over 30 years we've been making award-winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before. Epic's award-winning Unreal Engine technology not only provides game developers the ability to build high-fidelity, interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and VR, it is also a tool being embraced by content creators across a variety of industries such as media and entertainment, automotive, and architectural design. As we continue to build our Engine technology and develop remarkable games, we strive to build teams of world-class talent.

Epic Games deeply values diverse teams and an inclusive work culture, and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. Learn more about our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy here.