Senior Software Engineer, NPC/Gameplay

Absurd Ventures•San Rafael, CA

8h•$170,000 - $190,000•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior NPC/Gameplay Engineer to build game features that bring characters to life in Unreal Engine 5. The role focuses on how players and NPCs move, act, react, and interact with the world and each other, and on translating those behaviors into believable, responsive animation. This position works across NPC behavior, gameplay, and animation, using a wide range of Unreal systems and partnering closely with animators and designers to take features from initial concepts through polished in-game results. The successful candidate will care about both how a character looks and feels while performing an action and the logic behind that action. This is a full-time, on-site role in San Rafael, California. The office is near downtown San Rafael, transit stations, and freeways. The base pay range is $170,000 to $190,000 per year. Actual compensation depends on market location and job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Regular full-time employees are offered vacation time, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical, dental, and vision insurance, life and disability insurance, and 401(k) matching. Certain roles may also be eligible for a bonus and equity.

Requirements

10–15 years of professional experience as a gameplay or NPC engineer, including shipped games.
At least 5 years of professional experience working in Unreal Engine.
Strong working knowledge of Unreal Engine 5 systems, including Gameplay Ability System, Character Movement Component or Mover, Montages, Motion Warping, Root Motion, IK and Control Rig, Navigation, State Trees, and Smart Objects.
A track record of shipping player and NPC features requiring tight integration with character animation.
Expertise in modern C++, with strong debugging and optimization skills.
Ability to design systems that are maintainable and easy for designers and animators to work with.
Excellent communication skills and a collaborative, solution-oriented mindset.

Nice To Haves

Experience with combat, melee or close-quarters character interactions, or synchronized animations between characters.
Experience with player character feel, including camera, controls, and responsiveness.
Experience building in-editor debugging or visualization tools for NPC behavior or animation.
A background in or strong interest in animation, and a good eye for motion quality.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and maintain gameplay features built around character behavior for both player characters and NPCs.
Connect gameplay and NPC logic to character animation so movement, traversal, combat, interactions, and reactions look natural and feel responsive.
Work with animators to build and integrate locomotion, contextual actions, and reaction systems, and define workflows for integrating new animation content.
Collaborate with designers to prototype, iterate on, and ship new behaviors, abilities, and character interactions.
Build tools and debugging features that help designers and animators create, test, and tune character behavior.
Write performant, well-structured C++ and debug and optimize gameplay, NPC, and animation performance across multiple platforms.
Contribute to technical planning, code reviews, coding standards, and documentation.