3 days ago
Base Salary
$104k - $167k/yr
Responsibilities
- Own the animation pipeline from DCC tools to the engine, including rigs, motion-capture ingest, retargeting, export, import, setup, and validation.
- Rig characters and build and maintain runtime animation systems and character setups in Unity, including state machines, blend trees, and animation controllers.
- Build runtime IK, procedural animation, facial animation, lip-sync, viseme, and ARKit-style blendshape systems.
- Evaluate and integrate AI animation tools and build AI-assisted workflow automation for the animation team.
- Partner with Engineering on animation-driven gameplay and runtime behavior.
- Profile animation performance and keep skinning, bone counts, Animator, and Playables costs within standalone mobile VR budgets.
- Troubleshoot technical animation issues, document pipelines and tools, set standards, and educate artists and software engineers.
- Collaborate with Art, Tech Art, Animation, Engineering, Content, UX, and User Research through development, stand-ups, and play tests.
Requirements
- At least one shipped title as a Technical Animator.
- Strong character-animation skills, including timing, weight, polish, and hands-on rigging.
- Experience with motion-capture cleanup, retargeting, and Unity integration.
- Experience building and maintaining animation systems.
- Proficiency in Maya and/or MotionBuilder.
- Experience with the Unity Playables API.
- Experience with AI animation tools such as Cascadeur and Kimodo.
- Experience with AI-assisted development workflows such as Cursor and Claude Code.
- Experience building animation tools and pipeline automation using AI toolsets.
- A portfolio demonstrating animation systems and pipeline work.
- At least 5 years of experience in the gaming and/or VR industry.
- At least 5 years of Unity or Unreal game-engine experience.
- Ability to work independently in ambiguous environments and collaborate cross-functionally with Engineering, Design, and Product.
- Preferred experience includes VR or mobile VR, Unreal Engine, runtime IK, facial animation, mobile animation profiling, procedural or physics-driven animation, engine-side control rigs, Motion Matching, and Perforce or Git.
Benefits
- Competitive salary, 401(k) with employer match, discretionary paid time off, and robust parental leave.
- Award-winning office and working environment in Seattle, Washington.
- Opportunities to ride along with police officers, explore third-party VR content, and work on immersive public-safety training.
- The role has no direct reports and reports to the Lead Technical Artist, VR, with creative direction from the Art Director.
Tech Stack
Categories
Gaming
About Axon
Axon builds TASER energy devices, body and in-car cameras, sensors, and a cloud software suite for managing evidence, records, and real-time operations used by law enforcement, public safety agencies, and enterprises. Revenue comes from hardware sales bundled with SaaS subscriptions and services across its Axon Evidence and Records platforms. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Axon Enterprise is a NASDAQ-listed public company serving police departments and government customers globally.