Character Animation Lead

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.

ART What We Do Push your artistic talent to the limit on a team of world-class environment, character, and concept artists who strive to innovate and inspire.

What You'Ll Do

Epic Games is looking for a Character Animation Director to join our Special Projects team to help drive the vision and execution of character animation across experimental and gameplay-driven prototypes. You will combine strong animation fundamentals with technical fluency in Unreal Engine to build responsive, expressive, and scalable animation systems. You will act as a bridge between animation and engineering - helping to define workflows, shape systems, and solve complex problems at the intersection of gameplay and motion.

This role requires both hands-on creation and leadership: setting quality bars, guiding others, and helping a small team move quickly without sacrificing clarity or craft. In this role, you will Lead the creation and implementation of high-quality, gameplay-driven animation in Unreal Engine Prototype and iterate on new approaches to character movement, responsiveness, and player-driven animation Collaborate closely with engineers and technical designers to design scalable, flexible animation systems.

What We'Re Looking For

Expert-level understanding of character animation principles, with the ability to deliver both realistic and stylized motion Deep experience working in Unreal Engine, including Animation Blueprints, state machines, blending, and runtime systems Strong understanding of gameplay animation-how input, timing, and responsiveness shape player experience Proven ability to collaborate effectively with engineers and technical designers on complex, system-driven features Experience building or contributing to animation systems (not just assets), including debugging and iteration in-engine Animating in engine using Unreal Engine animation tools Comfort working in ambiguous, exploratory environments with rapid iteration cycles Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to balance creative goals with technical constraints Excellent communication and leadership skills Experienced AAA development or equivalent real-time production environments Bonus Points Experience with motion matching, procedural animation, or emerging animation technologies Familiarity with Control Rig and runtime rigging workflows in Unreal Engine EPIC JOB + EPIC

BENEFITS

= EPIC LIFE Our intent is to cover all things that are medically necessary and improve the quality of life. We pay 100% of the premiums for both you and your dependents. Our coverage includes Medical, Dental, a Vision HRA, Long Term Disability, Life Insurance a 401k with competitive match.

We also offer a robust mental well-being program through Modern Health, which provides free therapy and coaching for employees dependents. Throughout the year we celebrate our employees with events and company-wide paid breaks.