Technical Animator

About the role

Join a team focused on developing next-generation animated avatars for employee training and accessibility initiatives. We are seeking a skilled Technical Animator with expertise in Unreal Engine, MetaHuman workflows, Control Rig development, and motion-capture integration to enhance our ASL signing avatar system. Your role will be pivotal in creating realistic and expressive animations that ensure precision and natural character motion.

Responsibilities

• Import, retarget, clean, and optimize motion-capture data for real-time playback in Unreal Engine.
• Design, build, and maintain animation rigs and Control Rigs for MetaHuman and Unreal-based characters.
• Create and refine highly detailed hand and finger animations supporting accurate sign language communication and natural character performance.
• Develop facial animation assets, including expressions, eye gaze behaviors, and idle states.
• Implement and maintain Animation Blueprints, Blend Spaces, Montages, State Machines, and animation layers within Unreal Engine.
• Prototype and iterate on signing gestures, transitions, conversational behaviors, and avatar interactions.
• Collaborate with engineers, designers, and accessibility specialists to ensure animation quality and technical performance.
• Produce demos and visual assets for stakeholder reviews and deployment readiness.
• Establish animation standards, documentation, naming conventions, and pipeline best practices.

Essential Skills

• 4+ years of experience in Technical Animation, Character Animation, Game Development, Virtual Production, or Interactive Media.
• Advanced proficiency in Unreal Engine animation systems, including Animation Blueprints, Control Rig, Blend Spaces, Montages, and Sequencer.
• Experience building and maintaining character rigs for MetaHuman or Unreal Engine skeletons.
• Hands-on experience importing, retargeting, cleaning, and integrating motion-capture data.
• Strong understanding of character rigging, skinning, deformation, body mechanics, and animation principles.
• Proficiency in Maya, Blender, or comparable 3D animation software.
• Ability to rapidly prototype, iterate, and respond to technical and creative feedback.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Experience with gesture-based communication.
• Experience creating Control Rigs specifically for hand articulation, finger posing, and detailed gesture animation.
• Knowledge of facial performance capture, FACS-based animation systems, and facial rig customization.
• Experience with MetaHuman pipelines, including facial animation, retargeting, LOD management, and rig customization.
• Experience with virtual humans, digital avatars, or real-time character animation.
• Familiarity with Perforce or similar version control systems.