CD PROJEKT RED is looking for a Lead Technical Animator to join our studio in Boston and work on Project Orion, the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077.
Requirements
- Develop and manage a high performing Technical Art team comprising Rigging TD’s and Technical Animators.
- Leverage your skillsets in both digital content creation tools and real-time engines to drive and deliver high-quality character, vehicle, and weapon workflows, pipelines, and animation solutions.
- Manage your direct reports and help them grow in their role and ambitions, including setting up 1:1s, performance management, hiring and promotions.
- Work with Directors and Production to estimate and plan work.
- Collaborate closely with designers, artists and other developers to understand their needs and ensure that your team is aligned to deliver on expectations.
- Coordinate and drive cross-discipline functional teams from feature conception to completion.
- Establish and maintain best practices offering guidance to support content development team artistic and technical objectives.
- Mentor the technical art team, building an environment of creativity, trust, and excellence aligned with the company’s values and goals.
- Prototype, research, integrate, and extend rigging and animation systems.
- Help devise, develop, and maintain pipelines for asset creation focusing on characters, weapons, and vehicles.
- Solve complex technical art challenges while ensuring workflows and systems are efficient and scalable.
- Actively participate in evaluating performance and optimization to ensure seamless cross-team gameplay experiences.
- Foster cross-department collaboration to ensure the content and animation work effectively contributes across game teams and systems.
- Minimum 7+ years of experience in the video games industry, including at least one shipped AAA title through the entire production lifecycle.
- Experience leading a technical art team.
- Expertise in Unreal Engine 5 Rigging and Animation Systems.
- Animation pipeline knowledge including developing and scripting tools for Maya, MotionBuilder, or other DCC applications.
- Proven track record of building character, vehicle, weapon workflows and pipelines.
- Excellent problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills.
- Ability to think creatively and strategically to overcome technical challenges and drive innovation in technology.
- Demonstrated commitment to taking ownership, setting goals, exchanging knowledge and driving initiatives independently.
- Strong C++, C#, or Python tool development and scripting professional experience.
- Experience in animation performance/memory optimization.
Benefits
- Company-paid medical healthcare (dental, vision, and mental)
- Free mental health support, including access to counseling, psychiatric care, and a variety of well-being webinars.
- Paid leave - 26 days of vacation, 10 sick days, & 12 calendar holidays per year.
- 401K with employer matching.
- Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA) – $100 per month to use towards fitness, wellness, internet, home office equipment, learning, streaming services, and more.
- Menstrual leave — employees who menstruate can take one extra day off when experiencing period pain.
- RED Parents Network — support for working parents, including childcare benefits, and family-friendly events.