Principal Gameplay Animation Engineer

2K Games is seeking a Principal Gameplay Animation Engineer to join their new studio in Vancouver, BC. This role involves contributing to the development of core runtime animation technology and features, working closely with Animators, Design, and Production to create nuanced and sophisticated animation behaviors that authentically replicate sport.

The Principal Gameplay Animation Engineer will help build the foundation, iterate and innovate upon it, and polish world-class gameplay for what will be the next massive sports franchise in the industry.

What this role involves:

• Research, develop, and implement new industry-leading animation technologies.
• Collaborate closely with gameplay engineers/designers to identify and develop new animation features.
• Support requests and features for content creation tools, and animation review/analysis.
• Keep up to date with the latest industry/academic work for consideration for our Animation toolset.
• Mentor engineers on programming techniques and robust engineering practices.
• Partner with studio leadership to define engineering standards and direction for animation technology development.
• May assume a tech lead role for game components, including system responsibility and technical leadership of other specialists.
• Write and maintain robust and performant code.
• Optimize code and debug animation issues as they arise.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field (or equivalent work experience).
• Excellent 3D math and linear algebra skills.
• Advanced expertise with C++.
• 7+ years of proven experience working on computer animation.
• Implementation experience in one or more of the following areas: inverse kinematics techniques, ragdoll and physics-based character animation, procedural animation techniques, cloth/hair animation, keyframe animation and forward kinematics, motion matching, machine learning-driven animation techniques.
• Ability to explain technical topics to people of varying levels of expertise.
• Dedicated and self-motivated with an ability to identify areas for research/development.
• An eye for detail in creating dynamic, authentic, and responsive character animation.
• Love for video games (not just ours!).

What 2K Games offers:

• Opportunity to work on a new sports franchise.
• A collaborative and innovative work environment.
• The chance to mentor other engineers.