Technical Animator

Who We Are:

NaturalMotion is an award-winning UK game studio dedicated to crafting world-class mobile experiences. Alongside our continued live-service development on CSR Racing 2 (#1 drag racing series of all time), our team is stepping into its next chapter with an ambitious, unannounced project. Honoured for eight consecutive years as a GamesIndustry.biz Best Place to Work in the UK winner and named a Top 50 UK Game Maker in 2025 and 2026, we offer a collaborative studio culture backed by the global reach of Zynga and Take-Two Interactive.

Position Overview:

We are looking for a Senior Technical Animator to join our team in supporting our next unannounced project. You will work alongside the Animation Team helping to deliver and bring to life our amazing characters.

We embrace a hybrid work environment. Within this role, you would work 2 days per week in our London office and the remaining days at home.

What You'll Do:

• Responsible for creating and maintaining the rigging and technical animation pipeline for the projects.
• As part of the Animation Team, you will play a key role in implementing characters.
• Reporting to the Lead Animator and Art Director.

What You Bring:

• Demonstrate expert knowledge of the skeletal pipeline from Rigging to exporting finalised characters into game, with a speciality of understanding mobile limitations (both bipedal and non-bipedal).
• Expert in how animation systems work in Unreal Engine, debug, modify and being able to create them in game engines from scratch.
• Have expert knowledge of retargeting and shared skeleton pipeline, both in and out of engine and can expand into retargeting between non matching skeletons.
• Understand the setup of cloth sim and dynamics in both Engine and 3D software, the application of such and the requirements and limitations of its use on mobile.
• Proficient in 3D software relevant scripting languages; MEL, Python, Max Script, etc.
• Foundational knowledge of rigging; using bones, IK, Splines, Blend Shapes, Skinning, node editing and setting up animation blueprints in Unreal.
• Have advanced knowledge of major third party rigging systems used in the industry; Advanced Skeleton, Rapid Rig, mGear etc.
• Experience in animation systems that are scalable and able to work on a wide range of mobile devices.
• Complete ownership of pipeline with good documentation and communication.

Bonus Points: 

• Premium character presentation pipelines - build and own animation systems for high-value front-end moments, ensuring characters are always presented at a premium quality bar.
• Automated optimization techniques for the creation of LODs.
• Support a fast paced character pipeline in the delivery of characters per season.
• Able to demonstrate knowledge of Facial Rigging processes, game engine compatible solutions and how to implement them.
• Experience with motion capture, cleanup and application to different characters.
• Knowledge of procedural animation systems.
• Experience in other areas of technical art e.g. Shaders, Lighting Tech, VFX.

What We Offer You: 

• Competitive salary and discretionary annual bonus scheme
• 26 days holiday, plus bank holidays & 2 paid personal days
• 6 months fully paid maternity/adoption leave and 16 weeks fully paid paternity leave (eligibility criteria applies)
• Pension plan, with a double matching employer contribution 
• Private medical & dental insurance and healthcare cash plan
• Life insurance, personal accident insurance and income protection
• Mental health and neurodiversity support programs
• Company Employee Stock Purchase Plan (eligibility criteria applies)
• Fitness reimbursement plan, worth £600 per annum
• Flexible working hours
• Weekly happy hours, seasonal parties and monthly social events
• Annual rail season ticket advance and cycle to work scheme

#LI-Hybrid

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, which means we are committed to creating and celebrating diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds throughout our organization.  Employment with us is based on substantive ability, objective qualifications, and work ethic – not an individual’s race, creed, color, religion, sex or gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, alienage or citizenship status, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence or sex offenses, reproductive health decision, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing the necessary support and accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities, health conditions, or impairments (subject to any local qualifying requirements) to ensure their full participation in the job application or interview process. Please contact us at accommodationrequest@zynga.com to request any accommodations or for support related to your application for an open position.

Please be aware that Zynga does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others.  Zynga also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel.  Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scamp or phishing attack, and you should not engage.  Zynga’s  in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a zynga.com, take2games.com, naturalmotion.com, smallgiantgames.com, themavens.com, gram.gs email domain).