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.

Requirements

• 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.

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.
• AAA games, cinematics, VFX, or virtual production environments.

Work Environment

This position can be either onsite in Bellevue or remote. The work schedule includes 5 hours of overtime per week, with holiday work expected. Weekend work is to be determined.

Pay

The pay range for this position is $45.00 - $46.00/hr.

Benefits

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms. If eligible, the benefits available for this temporary role may include the following:

• Medical, dental & vision
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents)
• Short and long-term disability
• Health Spending Account (HSA)
• Transportation benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)