Senior Technical Animator at Eleventh Hour Games
Company: Eleventh Hour Games
Location: Remote
Job Type: Full-Time
Salary: Not Disclosed
About the Company
Eleventh Hour Games is a fast-growing game development studio focused on creating top-down action RPG experiences. With a strong emphasis on teamwork, creativity, and ownership, the studio empowers developers to build extraordinary games. Their breakout title, Last Epoch, has established a passionate player community, and the team continues to expand its creative ambitions.
Job Overview
As a Senior Technical Animator, you will lead the development of animation pipelines, rigs, tools, and runtime systems that power high-quality character animation. This role is hands-on and focuses on building scalable workflows, improving production efficiency, and ensuring animation systems are performant and reliable in-game.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and maintain animation pipelines from DCC tools to in-engine implementation
- Develop tools and systems to improve animator efficiency and iteration speed
- Create high-quality character rigs, including deformation and control systems
- Implement animation systems such as state machines, blending, and runtime behaviors
- Build scalable automation systems for NPC animation workflows
- Collaborate with engineering teams to develop performant animation tools
- Optimize animation systems for performance, memory, and scalability
- Support motion capture pipelines including data cleanup and integration
- Research and implement modern animation techniques like procedural animation and IK systems
- Debug animation issues across rigging and runtime systems
- Establish best practices for animation workflows, naming conventions, and data structures
- Collaborate with designers, animators, and engineers to meet gameplay and visual goals
- Identify risks in animation systems and propose proactive solutions
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience as a Technical Animator in game development
- Strong experience with animation pipelines, rigging, and deformation systems
- Experience implementing animation systems in real-time game engines
- Knowledge of runtime systems such as state machines, blending, and IK
- Experience optimizing animation for performance and scalability
- Proficiency in scripting or programming (Python or similar)
- Experience with motion capture workflows and data integration
- Strong debugging and problem-solving skills
- Ability to collaborate effectively across teams
- Self-driven with strong ownership of systems and pipelines
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Animation, Computer Graphics, Game Development, or a related field is preferred, or equivalent practical experience.
Benefits
- Remote work flexibility
- Opportunity to work on a successful ARPG title
- Collaborative and creative team environment
- Career growth and ownership opportunities
- Inclusive workplace with equal opportunity employment policies