Lead Character Tools Engineer

PlayStation Global

2d•$143,700 - $215,500•Hybrid

About The Position

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is seeking a Lead Character Tools Engineer to join the PlayStation Central Technology team. This role will focus on character technology, encompassing creation, rigging, and animation. The engineer will be responsible for developing and distributing tools, optimizing processes for efficient character creation in games, and integrating emerging technologies into future game development workflows. The candidate is expected to prototype, create, and collaborate on the deployment and maintenance of technical tools and practices, drawing from experience in traditional game development and run-time workflows. A key aspect of this role involves seeking new opportunities to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to enhance efficiency in these processes. This internal team, composed of artists, engineers, and technical artists, partners with various engineering teams, studio stakeholders, research engineers, and other Central Technology groups to ensure cohesion and standardization across PlayStation activities. The position requires a demonstrable understanding of game development pipelines, extensive experience with Autodesk Maya software, and strong programming skills. Familiarity with leveraging agentic workflows to accelerate code creation and testing is also necessary.

Requirements

Experience as technical artist or engineer to develop and deploy tools to support character creation, rigging, simulation, or animation pipelines in a run-time environment
10+ years in a game development studio or previous experience creating artist-facing tools on technical art or engineering team in a production environment
BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Graphic Art, or a related field, or equivalent experience
Extensive experience in working with game editors and excellent working knowledge of technical specifications of workflow from DCC to complex real-time environments
Capable of writing and debugging C++
Excellent knowledge of Maya with general knowledge of Maya rigging
Developing or maintaining project pipeline tools and system environments
Excellent troubleshooting skills and the ability to creatively solve problems
Experience leveraging Agentic AI models
Strong understanding of deformation and mesh processing
Familiarity with industry trends in character rigging, gameplay animation, cinematic animation, deformation and simulation usage in character animation pipelines
Decent sense of humor

Nice To Haves

Strong Python programming skills and experience with PyQt/Pyside
Motionbuilder, Maya, Houdini, experience
Experience with HLSL, MaterialX
Experience with other programming languages, especially C++.
Experience with Perforce, Git, Confluence
Exposure to photogrammetry, motion capture/performance capture

Responsibilities

Collaborate with internal team members and studio stakeholders to prototype and harden create tools considering contemporary development workflows, data management, art creation, animation, and game engine integration
Setting up and maintaining project specific environments and automation opportunities
Learning and supporting varying client working environments, assets, and tools
Writing, maintaining, and customizing internal tools and workflows
Building and maintaining technical documentation
Willingness to attend and participate in PlayStation internal demonstrations and conferences, travel required
Ability to work in a collaborative team environment as well as self-driven experimentation and research