Job description
What we are looking for:
We’re looking for an experienced Animation Systems Engineer ready to take on complex runtime challenges and cross-discipline collaboration. You’ll work closely with our Tech Art Director and Technical Animation team to build scalable, expressive, and performant character animation systems that support gameplay, aesthetics, and runtime stability.
This role balances hands-on C++ engineering with close collaboration across animation, tech art, and design — helping the team bring modular, reactive characters to life in a live game environment.
What we will do together:
- Build and maintain native animation instances for characters, weapons, and runtime systems — supporting both animation logic and visual behavior.
- Develop systems for modular animation layering — enabling additive features like weapons, capes, and secondary attachments.
- Collaborate with Tech Animation to refine and enforce data definitions, collision handling, and modular character build logic.
- Diagnose and correct animation flow, sync behavior, and data-driven inconsistencies across runtime character systems.
- Drive and optimize secondary motion systems, including cloth, physics-driven animation, and motion-based dynamics.
- Contribute to animation event timelines, traversal logic, combat responsiveness, and cross-state blending in collaboration with design and animation.
- Streamline preview systems and in-editor workflows to improve iteration speed and debuggability.
- Improve animation system scalability across multiple platforms, balancing fidelity and performance for a wide range of hardware targets.
- Support animation systems that operate reliably in networked multiplayer environments, with a focus on timing accuracy, prediction, and sync stability.
- Provide technical guidance and mentorship to support scalable animation systems and cross-team alignment.
What you will bring:
- Expert-level C++ experience, with a strong understanding of real-time, performance-sensitive systems.
- Proven experience building or maintaining real-time animation systems in Unreal or similar AAA engines.
- Deep knowledge of skeletal animation, runtime blending, animation layering, and state machines.
- Strong math foundation — including linear algebra, transform hierarchies, IK, and motion/physics integration.
- Skilled at bridging animation, design, and engineering disciplines, helping teams converge on scalable, high-fidelity animation solutions.
- Exposure to animation tools or pipelines designed for use by animators and other non-engineers is beneficial.
- Familiarity with modular character systems, including swappable parts, layered collisions, and scalable asset structures, is highly valued.
- Exposure to the technical considerations of multiplayer animation systems — such as network timing and replication — is helpful but not required.
Interested… a bit about Escape Velocity:
Escape Velocity is a team of passionate, talented developers working at a studio that offers excellent benefits, on what we believe is a unique project with a committed publisher. But that doesn’t necessarily make us unique. What does make us special? We value the time, energy, and talent of our players and our colleagues. We want every hour spent developing and playing our games to be an incredibly rewarding and worthwhile use of your time.
To that end, we are ‘Fully Remote’ and support team members nearly anywhere in the world. We prioritize honesty, even when that means sharing bad news. We strive to give everyone autonomy so they can determine how best to work and play, and we care more about what you bring to the game and studio than how many hours you’re clocking. We’re dedicated to building a culture of play, which not only makes us better game makers, but also strengthens the bonds between us all. We believe in constant improvement across all areas – from the game itself to our production design – and are constantly re-evaluating how we spend our time to ensure that we’re not wasting yours and we’re all always working on the most important things.
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A few benefits you can expect from us:
- A generous PTO allowance
- Summer and Winter holidays studio closure (separate to PTO allowance)
- Private Medical & Dental Healthcare
- Private Mental Health scheme
- A generous annual Health & Wellbeing allowance
- Discretionary Studio Bonus
- Top range tech for your home set up
- Other benefits based on your region
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How to apply:
Click apply and complete an application along with a Resume / CV. If we would like to move forward with your application, a member of the Recruiting Team will reach out to you and guide you through our process.
Escape Velocity is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to hiring, promoting, and compensating employees based on their qualifications and demonstrated ability to perform job responsibilities.
Applications will be considered regardless of age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief, race, or any other protected category.
