Lead Animation Developer

Located in the heart of Lyon, within the prestigious Hôtel-Dieu, Virtuos Labs Lyon is home to nearly 50 passionate professionals specializing in engineering, with strong expertise in tool development and remaster projects.

Certified as a Great Place to Work and for on-going and unannounced projects, Virtuos Lyon is looking for a Lead Animation Developer motivated by ambitious, tech-demanding and gameplay-focused titles on PC and consoles.

You'll be responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining AAA-quality animation systems in Unreal Engine or other proprietary engines, working closely with animators, technical artists, and gameplay programmers. As a Lead Animation Developer, you will also have to establish guidance and strategy for our team of talented animation developers.

This role reports to the Technical Director and requires a deep understanding of software engineering and animation pipelines for real-time applications.

Responsibilities
Management

• Coordinate closely with Technical Directors to align on project progress and objectives.
• Establish strategy, milestones, and staffing plans for Animation Developers across assigned projects.
• Manage, mentor, and support Animation Developers throughout their assignments.
• Monitor Animation Developers' deliveries and ensure results meet expected quality and timelines.
• Assess related upcoming risks and anticipate mitigations for production safety.
• Help your team develop their full potential through training and personal growth initiatives.
• Act as a role model in management, demonstrating strong leadership, empathy, clear communication, and accountability.
• Foster a positive and inclusive team culture built on trust, collaboration, and respect.

Development

• Continuously assess our animation workforce against actual and future opportunities and make recommendations.
• Collaborate with stakeholders in the design of comprehensive and coherent technical strategies for in-game rig setup and animation graphs to serve project deliveries and imperatives.
• Drive the implementation of tools and engine features for systems like animation blending, state machines, motion matching, IK, and runtime retargeting.
• Ensure smooth integration between gameplay and physics feedback and the animation systems.
• Collaborate with other teams (gameplay, art, design, production) to ensure high-quality integration and responsiveness.
• Provide technical support to Tech Animators and Artists, including debugging, review, and optimization assistance.
• When necessary, write documentation explaining the studied or developed systems.
• Be proactive in the elaboration of recommendations to improve how we are doing things.
• Lead animation project strategies (conventions, unification, sharing, performance) to maintain a coherent technical vision across projects.

Qualifications
Must have qualifications

• 5+ years in a Lead position (mandatory).
• 3+ years in runtime animation development for gameplay or equivalent.
• Strong programming knowledge, especially in C++ and OOP logic.
• Good understanding of the code impact on performance and memory utilization.
• Familiar with modern game engine architectures.
• Experienced in managing and delivering features in an Agile environment, leveraging and supporting team self-organization, promoting lean processes, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Familiar with Unreal Engine and its animation features.
• Autonomous, efficient, and proactive attitude.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Fluent in French and English, both written and spoken.

Nice To Have Qualifications

• Familiar with Unreal Engine 5 and Control Rig.
• Previous work on Gen9 AAA projects.
• Credited on at least one released game.
• Software Engineering background.
• Comfortable in optimization field.
• Passion for animation systems and the future of character fidelity.

Position

Permanent contract located at Lyon, France. Partial work from home is possible.

About Us
Founded in 2004, Virtuos is one of the largest independent video game development companies. We are headquartered in Singapore with offices in Asia, Europe, and North America. Specializing in full-cycle game development and art production, we have delivered high-quality content for more than 1,500 console, PC, and mobile games. Our clients include 23 of the top 25 gaming companies worldwide.

About Our Team
Established in 2021, Virtuos Labs – Lyon specializes in game development and engineering. Virtuos Labs – Lyon's founding team of experienced programmers collaborates closely with our studios worldwide to deliver the best gaming solutions to our valued partners. Our Lyon studio is fast-growing and actively hiring in a variety of roles – we're looking for passionate talent to help make games better, together, with us.

What We Offer

• Office located in the heart of Lyon
• Inclusive and equal opportunity work environment
• Fulfilling careers with continuous talent development at one of the largest external development companies globally
• Work on a prestigious portfolio with some of the world's biggest AAA game titles
• Global and local teambuilding activities
• Quality of life at work and comprehensive medical healthcare provided for all staff
• Relocation support
• Career and international mobility opportunities with Virtuos Internal Mobility Program

People matter. Diverse opinions and experiences matter. At Virtuos, our talented teams are the cornerstone of our success, and we recognize that fostering and advocating for inclusivity is at the center of what we do best - we make games better, together. Virtuos is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that embraces diversity of thought, expression, culture, and backgrounds.

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