Senior Technical Animator - Art Center Team

Snail Games USA•Beverly Hills, CA

2d•$100,000 - $150,000•Remote

About The Position

Snail Games USA is seeking a Senior Technical Animator for its Central Art Team to build reliable animation systems and workflows across fantasy and science-fiction game projects. The role connects animation, art, design, and engineering, developing rigs, tools, and runtime animation systems in Unreal Engine 5, resolving integration issues, and helping animators bring their work into the game. The successful candidate creates systems that teammates can use, maintain, and expand; documents technical decisions, explains workflows, trains teammates, and owns work from initial development through production handoff. The position is remote in the listed U.S. states, with the Los Angeles area preferred. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States; visa sponsorship is unavailable. Compensation is $100,000–$150,000 annually, depending on experience, technical breadth, demonstrated production ownership, and location. Employees may encounter mature or sensitive creative materials as part of video game development, publishing, and short-form video content creation, and are expected to engage with them professionally.

Requirements

Professional technical animation experience on video game projects, with examples of systems or pipelines used in production.
Strong hands-on Unreal Engine 5 experience, including Animation Blueprints, state machines, blend spaces, montages, and Blueprint scripting.
Practical experience with MetaHuman, Control Rig, IK Rig, IK Retargeter, and skeletal animation workflows.
Strong understanding of character rigging, skinning, deformation, and animation fundamentals.
Experience integrating FBX animation assets into functional gameplay systems in Unreal Engine.
Proficiency in Maya or Blender and experience supporting workflows between DCC tools and Unreal Engine.
Ability to design reusable animation systems and troubleshoot issues across the asset-to-engine pipeline.
Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to artists and engineers.
Demonstrated experience documenting systems and enabling teammates to use and maintain them independently.
A self-directed, organized approach to delivering production-ready work and coordinating across departments.

Nice To Haves

Several shipped PC or console games using Unreal Engine.
Experience with motion matching, procedural animation, motion warping, or Unreal’s Gameplay Ability System.
Facial rigging, facial animation, or performance-capture integration experience.
Python, MEL, or C++ skills for tool development and automation.
Experience supporting humanoid characters, creatures, and characters with varied proportions.
Experience collaborating with distributed teams and external partners.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain Unreal Engine 5 animation systems using Animation Blueprints, state machines, blend spaces, montages, and layered animation.
Develop and support character rigs, Control Rigs, retargeting workflows, and MetaHuman animation integration.
Own animation integration from FBX import and skeleton setup through Blueprint configuration, gameplay implementation, and final validation.
Troubleshoot rigging, deformation, retargeting, blending, root motion, and runtime animation issues.
Create reusable tools and workflows that improve animation production and reduce repetitive work.
Build modular, maintainable systems that other technical artists and animators can extend independently.
Write documentation covering system structure, setup, usage, limitations, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
Train teammates and provide practical demonstrations to support adoption and handoff.
Work with animators, designers, engineers, and the Lead Animator to define requirements and preserve animation quality in-game.
Establish technical review criteria and validate submitted animation assets before production integration.
Profile and optimize animation systems for runtime performance and memory usage.
Independently plan work, communicate dependencies and risks, and track progress in Jira.