Animation Programmer
Job Summary
Job Description
Animation Programmers at Build A Rocket Boy design, implement, and maintain large-scale animation systems. Collaborating with technical animation and design teams, they create believable characters to delight players. Responsibilities include delivering high-quality animation systems for gameplay and cinematic features, supporting other teams in using animation systems effectively, identifying and debugging technical issues, prioritizing tasks, and communicating clearly with cross-disciplinary teams. Proficiency in C++, animation technologies (IK, animation graphs, cinematic systems), Unreal Engine, and animation pipelines is crucial. The role demands strong problem-solving, optimization, and multi-threaded solution development skills.
Must have:
- Strong C++ skills
- Animation tech expertise (IK, animation graphs)
- Unreal Engine experience
- High-performing, multi-threaded solutions
- Excellent communication
- Debugging & optimization skills
Good to have:
- Maya & MotionBuilder experience
- Multi-platform game shipping experience
Perks:
- Unlimited coaching & therapy
- Stock Options
- Pension scheme
- Socials & company events
- 25 Annual Leave + 3 bank holidays (UK)
- Private Medical Insurance (UK)
- Healthcare Cash Plan (UK)
- Cycle2Work Scheme (UK)
- Electric Car Charging (Edinburgh)
7 skills required
Job Details
Animation Programmers at Build a Rockey Boy are responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining large scale animation systems in collaboration with our technical animation and design teams. Their goal is to deliver animation systems that support building believable characters, to delight and entertain players.
An animation programmer will have a solid understanding of best practices and techniques across a range of animation technologies, such as IK, animation graphs, and cinematic systems; and will keep up to date on innovations and techniques within the industry.
They are expected to be proactive in all aspects, communicating directly with other disciplines to resolve problems quickly and develop clear requirements and translate them into flexible reusable solutions.
Key Responsibilities
- Deliver high quality animation systems for gameplay and cinematic features.
- Support other technical teams and animators in effective and efficient use of the team’s animation systems.
- Identify and debug technical issues.
- Prioritise, plan and manage the time of assigned tasks effectively
- Communicate clearly with other team members across disciplines
- Use appropriate data structures and algorithms to maximize efficiency for development tools and game runtime.
- Proactively highlight problems, delays and risks, and seek support when required
Requirements
- Strong C++ programming and debugging skills.
- Experience profiling and optimizing code.
- Excellent understanding of animation technologies and practical usage in games.
- Experience with Unreal Engine and animation pipelines.
- Great written and verbal communication skills, comfortable working with cross-discipline teams with varied levels of technical experience.
- Good algorithm and data structure skills (including time and space complexity and real-world vs theoretical performance of basic data structures).
- Strong experience in developing and debugging high performing, multi-threaded solutions
- Excellent understanding of animation technologies, such as animation trees, IK, retargeting, and motion matching.
Bonus
- Experience developing workflows with animation tools such as Maya and MotionBuilder
- Shipped at least one multi-platform game on PC or current gen consoles.
Benefits
Our Global Benefits & Perks
- Unlimited coaching & therapy — with Oliva, to support your mental health
- Stock Options — everyone owns a piece of our success
- Pension scheme — up to 5% employer matched contribution to finance those golden years
- Socials — office & remote events, play sessions and company-wide parties
- And even more benefits based on your location!
If you’re based in the UK
- 25 Annual Leave + 3 bank holidays - we’re flexible with most bank holidays so you can use the time to celebrate what’s important to you
- Private Medical Insurance - full cover with AXA
- Healthcare Cash Plan - Level 3 cover with Medicash
- Cycle2Work Scheme - lease a bike through us and save on tax too!
- Electric Car Charging - electric car charging at our Port office in Edinburgh, Scotland.
About Build A Rocket Boy
Build A Rocket Boy is an independent game developer, headquartered in Edinburgh Scotland, with operations in Budapest Hungary, the Netherlands, France, and California USA. Led by game developer Leslie Benzies, Build A Rocket Boy’s team includes hundreds of the industry’s brightest development talents with the shared vision to create new and innovative entertainment experiences. Build A Rocket Boy’s first project is EVERYWHERE – a new multi-world game experience that blurs the line between reality and the digital world.
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About The Company
Build A Rocket Boy is an independent game developer, headquartered in Edinburgh Scotland, with operations in Budapest Hungary, the Netherlands, France, and California USA. Led by game developer Leslie Benzies, Build A Rocket Boy’s team includes hundreds of the industry’s brightest development talents with the shared vision to create new and innovative entertainment experiences. Build A Rocket Boy’s first project is EVERYWHERE – a new multi-world game experience that blurs the line between reality and the digital world.
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