Lead Technical Animator

Lead Technical Animator

Epic Games is searching for a Lead Gameplay Technical Animator with a passion for expressive character movement to join our team. In this talented team of veteran and emerging artists, you'll collaborate across teams and contribute directly to Fortnite and other initiatives as part of our collaboration with Disney. Joining this team means you're motivated to seek solutions to problems and work with other disciplines to make positive changes to workflows, tools, and technologies that directly impact Gameplay.

In this role, you will:

• Work closely with technical animators, Leads, Directors, and Outsource Managers on the team to ensure assets are set up for success in the different stages of production
• Communicate and drive alignment around strategy for technical animation and adjacent gameplay teams
• Work with production to schedule, prioritize, and delegate assets for the team, both internal and vendor
• Work closely with animators, modelers, and designers to ensure a smooth development pipeline that delivers high-quality assets
• Assisting with pipeline tools and working with engine and project leads on the continuous improvement of those engine tools
• Mentor rigging-focused technical animators
• Rigging characters, weapons, creatures, and vehicles
• Setting up assets in Unreal Engine 5; including control rigs, cloth, physics, and blueprints
• Maintain detailed documentation, video reference, and examples of art asset production, procedures, and engine requirements to support internal and external artists

What we're looking for:

• Extensive experience rigging characters in Maya and/or Unreal Engine
• A portfolio demonstrating rigging for a range of characters, bipeds, and creatures, both body and faces
• Attention to aesthetic detail, especially with regard to character deformation and physics movement
• Familiarity with the Unreal Engine 5 art pipeline
• A positive individual with strong written communication and teamwork skills
• Exceptional problem-solver
• Control Rig experience a plus
• Python programming is a plus

You're user-focused, passionate, solutions-focused, and innovative. These traits equal success at Epic and influence everything we do.

EPIC JOB + EPIC BENEFITS = EPIC LIFE

Our intent is to cover all things that are medically necessary and improve the quality of life. We pay 100% of the premiums for both you and your dependents. Our coverage includes Medical, Dental, a Vision HRA, Long Term Disability, Life Insurance & a 401k with competitive match. We also offer a robust mental well-being program through Modern Health, which provides free therapy and coaching for employees & dependents. Throughout the year we celebrate our employees with events and company-wide paid breaks. We offer unlimited PTO and sick time and recognize individuals for 7 years of employment with a paid sabbatical.

Epic Games is a leading interactive entertainment company. For over 30 years we've been making award-winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before.

Epic Games deeply values diverse teams and an inclusive work culture, and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer.