Associate Technical Animator / Rigger (Unreal Engine)

Location: France — Cergy or Lyon; work at the Paris studio is offered, with remote work possible. Relocation support is available.

Company

Virtuos is an independent video game development company specializing in full-cycle game development and art production for console, PC, and mobile games.

What you will do

• Support the Lead Technical Animator with task planning, prioritization, work distribution, progress tracking, and production risk management.
• Review work, provide feedback, mentor junior and intermediate team members, and act as a delegated technical point of contact.
• Design, develop, and maintain production-quality rigs for characters, creatures, and props.
• Implement animation systems in Unreal Engine using Animation Blueprints, State Machines, Blend Spaces, Control Rig, and related logic.
• Develop rigging and technical animation tools and scripts, and troubleshoot deformation, animation, and integration issues.
• Optimize animation systems for runtime performance and memory requirements while improving pipelines and technical practices.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of professional Technical Animation and Rigging experience in the video game industry.
• Experience supporting a Lead or coordinating technical work within a team.
• Strong expertise creating production-quality rigs with Autodesk Maya or equivalent DCC software.
• Hands-on Unreal Engine experience with Animation Blueprints, State Machines, Blend Spaces, and Control Rig, plus practical C++ development for animation-related gameplay systems.
• Proficiency in Python, MEL, or equivalent scripting languages for pipeline automation and tool development.
• Strong understanding of animation principles, character deformation, real-time animation workflows, debugging, communication, and collaboration. Professional English proficiency is required.

Nice to have

• Experience leading small feature teams or acting as a technical point of contact.
• Facial rigging and facial animation pipeline experience.
• Motion capture processing, cleanup, and integration experience.
• Familiarity with Motion Matching, procedural animation, or advanced Unreal Engine animation features.
• Experience shipping AAA or large-scale game productions.

Culture & Benefits

• Opportunity to contribute to major AAA game titles.
• Remote work is possible, with studio-based work in France.
• Comprehensive medical healthcare is provided for staff.
• End-of-project celebrations, teambuilding outings, studio activities, gaming corners, and a common area.
• Career and international mobility opportunities through the internal mobility program.
• Relocation support is available.