Lead Character Tools Engineer

The role

The Lead Character Tools Engineer will develop and distribute tools for character creation, rigging, and animation. This role focuses on optimizing character making and integrating emergent technology into game making workflows.

What you will do

• Collaborate with internal team members and studio stakeholders to prototype and harden tools
• Set up and maintain project specific environments and automation opportunities
• Learn and support varying client working environments, assets, and tools
• Write, maintain, and customize internal tools and workflows
• Build and maintain technical documentation
• Attend and participate in PlayStation internal demonstrations and conferences

Required qualifications

• Experience as technical artist or engineer to develop and deploy tools for character creation, rigging, simulation, or animation pipelines in a run-time environment
• 10+ years in a game development studio or previous experience creating artist-facing tools on technical art or engineering team in a production environment
• BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Graphic Art, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• Extensive experience in working with game editors
• Excellent working knowledge of technical specifications of workflow from DCC to complex real-time environments
• Capable of writing and debugging C++
• Excellent knowledge of Maya with general knowledge of Maya rigging
• Developing or maintaining project pipeline tools and system environments
• Excellent troubleshooting skills
• Experience leveraging Agentic AI models
• Strong understanding of deformation and mesh processing
• Familiarity with industry trends in character rigging, gameplay animation, cinematic animation, deformation and simulation usage in character animation pipelines

Nice to have

• Strong Python programming skills and experience with PyQt/Pyside
• Motionbuilder, Maya, Houdini, experience
• Experience with HLSL, MaterialX
• Experience with other programming languages, especially C++
• Experience with Perforce, Git, Confluence
• Exposure to photogrammetry, motion capture/performance capture

Benefits

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Matching 401(k)
• Paid time off
• Wellness program
• Employee discounts for Sony products
• Possible bonus package

Before you apply

• Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage

About the company

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand and a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is a technology company and entertainment leader delivering hardware and network services to more than 100 million people.