Senior NPC/Gameplay Engineer - Unreal 5, Animation-Driven

Absurd Ventures, LLC; San Rafael (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vacation time

Sick time

Company holidays

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) matching

Job summary

Absurd Ventures, LLC in San Rafael, CA seeks a Senior NPC/Gameplay Engineer to create features that bring characters to life in Unreal Engine 5. You will influence player and NPC behavior, motion, and interaction, turning ideas into polished on-screen action.

You'll bridge gameplay, animation, and design, working with animators and designers to ship engaging behaviors, while ensuring robust, maintainable systems and cross‑platform performance.

Qualifications

• 10-15 years of professional experience as a gameplay or NPC engineer, including shipped games.
• 5+ years of professional experience working in Unreal Engine.
• Expertise in modern C++ with strong debugging and optimization skills.
• Ability to design systems maintainable for designers and animators.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain gameplay features around character behavior for players and NPCs.
• Connect gameplay and NPC logic to character animation for natural movement and responsiveness.
• Collaborate with animators to integrate locomotion, actions, and reactions; define workflows for new animation content.
• Prototype, iterate on, and ship new behaviours, abilities, and interactions.
• Build tools and debugging features to help designers and animators test and tune character behavior.
• Write performant, well-structured C++ and optimize gameplay and animation across platforms.
• Contribute to technical planning, code reviews, coding standards, and documentation.

Skills

Unreal Engine

C++

Gameplay systems design

Animation integration

Optimization

Collaboration with design/animation

Job description

Absurd Ventures, LLC in San Rafael, CA seeks a Senior NPC/Gameplay Engineer to create features that bring characters to life in Unreal Engine 5. You will influence player and NPC behavior, motion, and interaction, turning ideas into polished on-screen action.

You'll bridge gameplay, animation, and design, working with animators and designers to ship engaging behaviors, while ensuring robust, maintainable systems and cross‑platform performance.