Lead Technical Animator

We are looking for a Lead Technical Animator to spearhead the development of our rigging systems and in-engine animation workflows. This role requires both a strong foundation in animation principles and the technical expertise to design robust rigs and implement complex animation logic within the engine. As a key bridge between animators, artists, and engineers, you will ensure that assets are expressive, performant, and seamlessly integrated into gameplay and cinematic pipelines.

 

• Lead the design, creation, and maintenance of rigs for characters, creatures, and props.
• Build, implement, and maintain animation logic directly in-engine, including state machines, control rigs, blend spaces, and animation blueprints/graphs.
• Collaborate closely with animators to ensure rigs and tools support fluid, expressive, and efficient animation workflows.
• Partner with engineers and technical artists to integrate animation assets into game systems.
• Develop tools and scripts to streamline rigging, skinning, and animation setup.
• Provide leadership and mentorship to the animation/technical animation team, offering feedback, training, and guidance to ensure growth and consistent quality.
• Troubleshoot and resolve rigging and animation integration issues throughout production.
• Research and apply emerging techniques to advance animation fidelity and efficiency.

• 5+ years of professional experience in technical animation, rigging, or similar roles. 
• Proven expertise in rigging and skinning characters, creatures, and props for production (preferably in Maya).
• Strong understanding of animation principles and how they translate to interactive environments.
• Experience implementing animation logic directly within a real-time engine (preferably Unreal Engine). 
• Proficiency with scripting languages (e.g., Python, MEL, or similar) for workflow and pipeline automation.
• Demonstrated leadership or mentorship experience within animation or technical art teams.  
• Strong problem-solving ability and cross-disciplinary communication skills.
• Fluency in English (spoken and written).

Nice-to-Haves

• Familiarity with facial rigging and performance capture workflows.
• Experience with motion capture cleanup and integration.
• Understanding of real-time performance optimization for animation systems.
• Background in AAA or large-scale interactive projects.

Founded in 2004, Virtuos is one of the largest independent video game development companies. We are headquartered in Singapore with offices in Asia, Europe, and North America. Specializing in full-cycle game development and art production, we have delivered high-quality content for more than 1,500 console, PC, and mobile games. Our clients include 23 of the top 25 gaming companies worldwide. About Our Team Founded in 2010 and later acquired by Virtuos in 2017, our Paris studio is located within the lush confines of Parc Saint-Christophe in Cergy – close to the city center of Paris and easily reachable by public transport. Our studio has a full suite of capabilities to undertake projects of varying scopes, including co-developments, adaptations, and remasters of AAA games. A great example of this is our recently launched homemade game, Mahokenshi, which was released in January 2023. Virtuos Paris houses a team of experts from technical artists and game designers to engineers. Our Paris studio takes pride in its engineering team’s depth of experience, which has been providing its rich expertise in re-engineering and adaptation, as well as in gameplay mandates to our global partners to bring some of the world’s top AAA games to life.