Lead Rigger | North America | Canada | Europe | Fully Remote

Escape Velocity Entertainment Inc

7d•Remote

About The Position

We are looking for a Lead Rigger to own our character rigging pipeline and lead our rigging team. You will work closely with Animation, Art Direction, and Production to define quality standards and technical workflows that enable high-fidelity character deformation and performance across all platforms. Your expertise in Maya rigging and Unreal animation and procedural systems - combined with strong tools development abilities - will establish best practices, mentor junior riggers, and drive the evolution of our characters as the game scales.

Requirements

Minimum five years of experience in the game industry with 2+ released game projects.
At least one released Unreal Engine game as a Rigger, Technical Animator, or Technical Artist.
Proven experience leading and mentoring a rigging or character technical team.
Expert-level rigging skills in Maya, mGear experience a plus.
Strong pipeline and tools development experience - designing, architecting, and maintaining rigging toolsets that improve team efficiency.
Highly proficient with Python or similar scripting languages for tools development in Maya and Unreal.
Highly experienced with Unreal’s secondary motion systems, including Rigid Bodies, Cloth, Control Rig, and Anim Dynamics.
Excitement for dynamic, optimized characters and continuous process improvement.

Nice To Haves

mGear experience a plus.

Responsibilities

Oversee technical quality of character production: rigging, tools, deformations & simulations in our characters, weapons, and creatures.
Lead and mentor our Riggers and Character Technical Artists, fostering growth and accountability within the team.
Establish and drive adoption of best practices across the rigging pipeline in collaboration with Art, Animation, and Production teams.
Design & develop workflows and tooling that improve iteration speed, quality, and efficiency for riggers and animators.
Enhance characters in Unreal through procedural and secondary motion systems, including Control Rig, Physics, and other animation systems.
Find creative solutions to achieve secondary motion and optimization while maintaining high performance across all platforms.
Support Animation and Art teams with technical rigging expertise, problem-solving, and technical direction.
Work with outsourcing partners to establish successful workflows for external character rigging and development.