Senior Technical Animator - Art Center Team (Unreal Engine)

Location: Remote within Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, or Wyoming; Los Angeles area preferred. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Salary: $100,000–$150,000 annually.

Company

Snail Games develops and publishes online gaming and digital entertainment, including fantasy and science-fiction game projects.

What you will do

• Design, build, and maintain Unreal Engine 5 animation systems using Animation Blueprints, state machines, blend spaces, montages, layered animation, and Blueprint scripting.
• Develop character rigs, Control Rigs, retargeting workflows, MetaHuman animation integration, and DCC-to-Unreal workflows.
• Own animation integration from FBX import and skeleton setup through Blueprint configuration, gameplay implementation, and final validation.
• Troubleshoot rigging, deformation, retargeting, blending, root motion, and runtime animation issues.
• Create reusable, modular tools and workflows; document system structure, setup, usage, limitations, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
• Collaborate with animators, designers, engineers, and the Lead Animator; train teammates, define technical review criteria, validate assets, optimize runtime performance and memory usage, and track work in Jira.

Requirements

• Professional technical animation experience on video game projects, including production examples of systems or pipelines.
• Strong hands-on Unreal Engine 5 experience with Animation Blueprints, state machines, blend spaces, montages, and Blueprint scripting.
• Practical experience with MetaHuman, Control Rig, IK Rig, IK Retargeter, and skeletal animation workflows.
• Strong understanding of character rigging, skinning, deformation, and animation fundamentals.
• Experience integrating FBX animation assets into functional gameplay systems in Unreal Engine.
• Proficiency in Maya or Blender and experience supporting workflows between DCC tools and Unreal Engine.
• Ability to design reusable animation systems and troubleshoot issues across the asset-to-engine pipeline.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including explaining technical concepts to artists and engineers.
• Demonstrated experience documenting systems and enabling teammates to use and maintain them independently, with a self-directed and organized approach to production delivery and cross-department coordination.

Nice to have

• Several shipped PC or console games using Unreal Engine.
• Experience with motion matching, procedural animation, motion warping, or Unreal’s Gameplay Ability System.
• Facial rigging, facial animation, or performance-capture integration experience.
• Python, MEL, or C++ skills for tool development and automation.
• Experience supporting humanoid characters, creatures, and characters with varied proportions.
• Experience collaborating with distributed teams and external partners.

Culture & Benefits

• Focus on work/life balance.
• Paid company holidays, vacation, and separate sick leave.
• Medical, dental, vision, and Life/LTD coverage.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Work involves mature, violent, sexual, graphic, or otherwise sensitive creative content in a professional game-development context.