Contract Advanced Technical Animator (Unreal Engine)

Location: Austin, TX, United States

Company

Develops high-quality, real-time character experiences for Unreal Engine productions.

What you will do

• Design, implement, and maintain scalable runtime animation systems and Animation Blueprint architectures in Unreal Engine.
• Develop modular, data-driven frameworks for motion matching, state machines, additive systems, and gameplay-driven animation.
• Build and optimize character systems including IK, secondary motion, cloth and hair simulation, and facial animation pipelines.
• Profile, debug, and optimize character systems for multiplayer, large-scale, and live-service environments.
• Build cross-DCC and engine pipelines, custom tools, and workflows that improve iteration speed and content quality.
• Support internal teams and external vendors through documentation, onboarding, outsourcing pipelines, mentoring, and production standards.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in games, film, or real-time interactive production, focused on technical animation, technical art, or related disciplines.
• Deep Unreal Engine experience, including real-time animation systems, performance profiling, Unreal Insights, and in-engine tools.
• Strong Python scripting and programming skills; experience with MEL, C#, or C++ is preferred.
• Experience developing production-ready tools, pipelines, workflows, and character systems.
• Understanding of skeletal hierarchies, retargeting, facial rigging, IK/FK blending, pose-space correctives, runtime constraints, animation graphs, and deformation pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with a major DCC package, preferably Maya, plus strong cross-disciplinary communication and documentation skills.

Culture & Benefits

• Contracted engagement supporting Unreal Engine productions.
• Collaboration with internal multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
• Opportunity to establish pipeline standards, documentation, onboarding materials, and technical best practices.