Senior Software Engineer, NPC/Gameplay

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

Summary

We are seeking a Senior NPC/Gameplay Engineer to build game features that bring characters to life in Unreal Engine 5. You will work on how both the player and NPCs behave: how they move, act, react, and interact with the world and with each other, and how those behaviors turn into believable, responsive animation on screen.

This role sits where NPC behavior, gameplay, and animation meet. You will work across a wide range of Unreal systems and partner closely with animators and designers to take a feature from idea to polished, in-game result. The ideal candidate cares as much about how a character looks and feels while doing something as about the logic that made it happen.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain gameplay features built around character behavior, for both the player character and NPCs.
• Connect gameplay and NPC logic to character animation, so that movement, traversal, combat, interactions, and reactions look natural and feel responsive.
• Work closely with animators to build and integrate locomotion, contextual actions, and reaction systems, and to define clean workflows for bringing new animation content into the game.
• Collaborate with design to prototype, iterate on, and ship new behaviors, abilities, and character interactions.
• Build tools and debugging features that help designers and animators create, test, and tune character behavior.
• Write performant, well-structured C++ and debug and optimize gameplay, NPC, and animation performance across multiple platforms.
• Contribute to technical planning, code reviews, coding standards, and documentation.

Core 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.
• Strong working knowledge of a wide range of Unreal Engine 5 systems, such as:
  • Gameplay: Gameplay Ability System, Character Movement Component or Mover
  • Animation: Montages, Motion Warping, Root Motion, IK and Control Rig
  • NPCs: Navigation, State Trees, Smart Objects
• A track record of shipping player and NPC features where the result depended on tight integration with character animation.
• Expertise in modern C++ with strong debugging and optimization skills.
• Ability to design systems that are maintainable and easy for designers and animators to work with.
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative, solution-oriented mindset.

Plus If…

• Experience with combat, melee or close-quarters character interactions, or synced animations between characters.
• Experience with player character feel: camera, controls, and responsiveness.
• Experience building in-editor debugging or visualization tools for NPC behavior or animation.
• A background or strong interest in animation itself, and a good eye for motion quality.

Description

• Full time job with benefits.
• Role is on-site in San Rafael, CA.
• Office is located near downtown San Rafael – near transit stations and freeways.

The base pay range for this position is $170,000 to $190,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including vacation time, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) matching to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.