Lead Rigger

What we are looking for58 We are looking for a Lead Rigger to own our character rigging pipeline and lead our rigging team. You will work closely with Animation, Art Direction, and Production to define quality standards and technical workflows that enable high-fidelity character deformation and performance across all platforms. Your expertise in Maya rigging and Unreal animation and procedural systems - combined with strong tools development abilities - will establish best practices, mentor junior riggers, and drive the evolution of our characters as the game scales. Requirements What we will do together58 Oversee technical quality of character production58 rigging, tools, deformations 38 simulations in our characters, weapons, and creatures. Lead and mentor our Riggers and Character Technical Artists, fostering growth and accountability within the team. Establish and drive adoption of best practices across the rigging pipeline in collaboration with Art, Animation, and Production teams. Design 38 develop workflows and tooling that improve iteration speed, quality, and efficiency for riggers and animators. Enhance characters in Unreal through procedural and secondary motion systems, including Control Rig, Physics, and other animation systems. Find creative solutions to achieve secondary motion and optimization while maintaining high performance across all platforms. Support Animation and Art teams with technical rigging expertise, problem-solving, and technical direction. Work with outsourcing partners to establish successful workflows for external character rigging and development. What you will bring58 Minimum five years of experience in the game industry with 243 released game projects. At least one released Unreal Engine game as a Rigger, Technical Animator, or Technical Artist. Proven experience leading and mentoring a rigging or character technical team. Expert-level rigging skills in Maya, mGear experience a plus. Strong pipeline and tools development experience - designing, architecting, and maintaining rigging toolsets that improve team efficiency. Highly proficient with Python or similar scripting languages for tools development in Maya and Unreal. Highly experienced with Unreal39s secondary motion systems, including Rigid Bodies, Cloth, Control Rig, and Anim Dynamics. Excitement for dynamic, optimized characters and continuous process improvement. Benefits Interested... a bit about Escape Velocity58 Escape Velocity is a team of passionate, talented developers working at a studio that offers excellent benefits, on what we believe is a once-in-a-career project with a committed publisher. But that doesn39t necessarily make us unique. What does make us special63 We value the time, energy, and talent of our players and our colleagues. We want every hour spent developing and playing our games to be an incredibly rewarding and worthwhile use of your time. To that end, we are 39Fully Remote39 and support team members nearly anywhere in the world. We prioritize honesty, even when that means sharing bad news. We strive to give everyone autonomy so they can determine how best to work and play, and we care more about what you bring to the game and studio than how many hours you39re clocking. We39re dedicated to building a culture of play, which not only makes us better game makers, but also strengthens the bonds between us all. We believe in constant improvement across all areas - from the game itself to our production design - and are constantly re-evaluating how we spend our time to ensure that we39re not wasting yours and we39re all always working on the most important things. A few benefits you can expect from us58 A generous PTO allowance Summer and Winter holidays studio closure 40separate to PTO allowance41 Private Medical 38 Dental Healthcare Private Mental Health scheme A generous annual Health 38 Wellbeing allowance Discretionary Studio Bonus Top range tech for your home set up Other benefits based on your region How to apply58 Click apply and complete an application along with a Resume 47 CV. If we would like to move forward with your application, a member of the Recruiting Team will reach out to you and guide you through our process. Escape Velocity is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to hiring, promoting, and compensating employees based on their qualifications and demonstrated ability to perform job responsibilities. Applications will be considered regardless of age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief, race, or any other protected category.