Animation Systems Programmer

🏢 Epic Games · 📍 Larkspur,California,United States 💰 $167,399 - $167,399 / yr

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Position Summary & Responsibilities

WHAT MAKES US EPIC?

At the core of Epic’s success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it’s building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we’re always innovating.

Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We’re constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.

ENGINEERING - SPECIAL PROJECTS

What We Do

The Special Projects team at Epic is responsible for executing high-impact projects that push the envelope to define the future of real-time graphics and gaming technology (The Matrix Awakens, Lumen in the Land of Nanite). In collaboration with the Unreal Engine team, we strive to put our technology and knowledge into the hands of users, empowering developers and content creators with the most powerful suite of real-time tools in the world.

What You'll Do

Epic Games is looking for an experienced Animation Systems Programmer for our Special Projects team. As a member of our team, you will play a critical role in driving future projects that push boundaries, explore new technology, and help define the future of Unreal Engine. You will be responsible for developing, enhancing, optimizing, and maintaining the core animation systems and will work closely with Animation, Design, and Engineering colleagues to ensure characterful and entertaining animation that is efficient and performant. You will also help identify potential issues and deploy correct solutions, using your technical knowledge to help bridge and facilitate communication between the animation team and other departments.

In this role, you will

Architect, implement, and maintain core animation systems used across the Special Projects team
Work closely with other engineers, animators, technical animators, product designers, leads and external technology partners across multiple teams and time zones
Write technical documentation and designs
Conduct exploratory research to pioneer and develop innovative animation systems and techniques that push the boundaries of what is possible in real-time production

What we're looking for

🎯 Candidate Preparation Guide For Epic Games Applicants

Key Role Competencies & Evaluation Highlights

Key Role Focus:

Technical mastery in high-performance C++ and absolute passion for Unreal Engine, gaming ecosystems, and player-first experiences.

📋 Preparation Priorities (Key Areas to Clarify):

1. Using slow, unoptimized high-level abstractions without understanding the underlying hardware cost.
2. Displaying indifference to gaming culture or viewing Unreal Engine strictly as a generic enterprise tool.
3. Lacking foundational computer science rigor in concurrency, rendering loops, or data structures.

✨ Recommended Role Alignment Hook:

I build high-performance, low-latency systems that let creators and players interact with massive digital worlds seamlessly.

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