Animation Programming Lead / Director

Job Description

ENGINEERING - GAMES

What We Do

Unreal projects have been leading the pack of real-time entertainment with our constantly growing team of engineering experts. We're always improving on the tools and technology that empower content developers worldwide.

What You'll Do

The Walt Disney Company and Epic Games are collaborating on an all-new games and entertainment universe.

In addition to being a world-class games experience, this new persistent universe will offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, and engage with content, characters, and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and more.

Players, gamers, and fans of all kinds will be able to create their own stories and experiences, express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way, and share content with each other in ways that they love. Come join us in creating the future of interactive entertainment.

We are a new and growing team at Epic, aiming to build innovative new experiences and technology as part of our collaboration with Disney. As an Animation Engineering Director, you will work closely with our Unreal Engine, Metahuman, and Research teams to design, extend, and apply the next generation of animation systems and tools in support of our first party development efforts. If you have extensive experience in building runtime animation systems and tools, are passionate about raising the bar and want to be at the cutting edge of innovation, we would like to hear from you!

In this role, you will
• Designing and implementing animation features and tools in the context of shipping first-party games
• Building and leading a team of experienced engineers and technical animators
• Working with other technology teams at Epic to advance the state of animation technology across the company, including in the Unreal Engine
• Working with senior leadership to define vision of next-generation animation tools
• Researching and exploring novel forward-looking techniques, including machine learning
• Supporting internal and external customers

What we're looking for
• 10+ years experience building runtime animation systems and tools in major game franchise, real-time engine, or middleware
• Experience as a leader in an engineering role, with demonstrated ability to lead a team effectively
• Experience writing tools and systems that improve the capability or efficiency of users
• A skilled software engineer, well-versed in software engineering principles, with excellent C++ skills and debugging capability
• An expert in runtime animation technology (IK, Quaternions, Motion Matching, Motion Warping, Data Compression, etc.)
• Intrinsic motivation to work with content creators, solve problems, and create better tools
• Has shipped at least one game and/or product

Nice to have skills
• Research work/publications in the fields of Animation Technology, Machine Learning, Computer Graphics and/or Computer Vision
• Familiarity with procedural animation techniques, including modern Machine Learning techniques
• Familiarity with multiple platforms and/or Unreal Engine is a plus
• Experience developing in a large codebase; ideally experience designing and implementing a tool from the ground up

Note to Recruitment Agencies: Epic does not accept any unsolicited resumes or approaches from any unauthorized third party (including recruitment or placement agencies) (i.e., a third party with whom we do not have a negotiated and validly executed agreement). We will not pay any fees to any unauthorized third party. Further details on these matters can be found here.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d8kn9q-18-225-95-229-42 in your application.