Senior Technical Animator - Art Center Team

Snail Games USA•Beverly Hills, CA

1d•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 and helping animators bring their work into the game. The successful candidate will create maintainable systems, document technical decisions and workflows, train teammates, and own work from initial development through production handoff. This is a remote role limited to applicants in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. The Los Angeles area is preferred. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States; visa sponsorship is unavailable. Employees may encounter mature or sensitive content in a professional and creative context as part of their work.

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.
Legal authorization to work in the United States.

Nice To Haves

Experience on 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 technical artists and animators can extend independently.
Document 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 in-game animation quality.
Establish technical review criteria and validate submitted animation assets before production integration.
Profile and optimize animation systems for runtime performance and memory usage.
Plan work independently, communicate dependencies and risks, and track progress in Jira.