Principal Software Engineer, 3D Animation - Unpublished R&D Product

Riot Games • Los Angeles, CA

49d

About The Position

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. As a Principal Software Engineer, you'll work alongside other engineers to implement technical solutions at a company-wide scale. You'll collaborate with teams to ensure high quality and stack applicability, and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering. As a Principal Software Engineer on our unpublished MMO, you will design, implement, and iterate on animation systems that bring characters to life and empower artists and designers. You will work in a collaborative team alongside technical artists, animators, gameplay engineers, and designers to ensure high-quality character motion is seamlessly integrated into the game experience by delivering scalable, performant, and expressive animation systems. You will report into the Senior Director of Software Engineering.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional experience as a software engineer in the game industry, with focus on real-time animation systems.
• Proficient in C++ and Python, with strong debugging and performance optimization skills
• Shipped at least one AAA game title featuring high-quality animation systems
• Solid foundation in 3D math
• Experience with modern runtime animation techniques - motion matching, runtime rigs, advanced blending techniques
• Experience collaborating across disciplines including animation, tech art, and gameplay design
• Pragmatic decision-making, strong product sense, and a deep empathy for player experience

Nice To Haves

• Experience working on character-driven games
• Prior work on dynamic or procedural animation systems
• Experience refining animator workflows and tools in partnership with tech art
• Familiarity with working with and extending tools like Maya
• Experience with asset pipelines, version control, and data-driven animation architectures
• Knowledge of Iris or similar data replication frameworks (optional if applicable)

Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable and performant real-time animation systems and pipelines tailored for game development
• Collaborate closely with animators, technical artists, and designers to empower high-fidelity character performance and interactivity
• Contribute to the architecture and technical direction for animation features including state machines, IK systems, and procedural motion
• Optimize runtime performance and memory usage of animation systems across platforms
• Drive the integration of animation tools with engine features
• Lead and participate in technical planning, prototyping, and feature development
• Promote best practices in animation engineering and mentor other developers in this specialty
• Help evolve content workflows and pipelines to support iteration and scale

Benefits

• Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules.
• We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match.
• Check out our benefits pages for more information.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Industry: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees