Senior Animation Programmer

As a Senior Animation Programmer, you will focus on further specialising your technical skills, particularly in animation systems, working with our teams to reach your next career step as a Principal or Lead.

Third Kind Games - a Virtuos Studio, is a world-class co-development games studio. Third Kind Games was founded in 2016 by a team of nine former Activision veterans and became a Virtuos Studio in 2024.

Our studio is based in Royal Leamington Spa and we also have remote studios in Poland and Spain. Our three studios have been built on the same original spirit and values since our beginning.

We work with some of the biggest names in the games industry such as Blizzard, Amazon, Microsoft and Mythical Games. We’re proud of our track record working on critically acclaimed games and franchises. We are also setting new benchmarks for creativity in the games industry, driving technical expertise in programming alongside creative innovation.

What is it like to be a Third Kinder?

We are a diverse team of people. We are collaborative, open-minded creatives who embrace ideas and knowledge from everyone in our team, with the aim of developing and inspiring ourselves, our projects and our games.

Work life balance and flexibility are very important to us and our team. At TKG we offer a place where our team can be their most creative, imaginative and confident selves. We want all of our team to feel valued, appreciated, and free to be who they are at work. TKG recently received a GOLD Award in Mind Charity’s Workplace Wellbeing Index, recognising our dedication to our team’s mental health and wellbeing.

Role Overview

You enjoy:

• Working with a highly experienced team on all areas of the game's animation systems, both client and server.
• Fully owning complex animation systems through design and development, working closely with the game designers, animators, and other disciplines to realize their visions.
• Leading the technical architecture and design of key animation systems, ensuring scalability, performance, and maintainability.
• Optimizing animation systems and assets for real-time performance across multiple platforms, including consoles and PCs.
• Conducting regular code reviews to ensure code quality and adherence to industry best practices, especially in the context of animation programming.
• Taking an active role in mentoring and developing junior staff.
• Collaborating closely with animators, riggers, and technical artists to develop and refine animation pipelines and workflows.
• Using your passion for gaming to design, plan, and develop high-quality animation code systems, working closely with the game designers and other disciplines to realize their visions.
• Demonstrating good communication skills with the ability to contribute to Scrum meetings and create innovative solutions for our games.
• Driving innovation by identifying and solving complex technical challenges within the animation development process.

What we are looking for from a Third Kinder

You would:

• Be capable of working autonomously, gathering your own requirements, and creating your own solutions.
• Be capable of learning a new language or technology without guidance.
• Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry movements.
• Enjoy working with various technologies and have a keen desire to learn new ones, particularly in the field of animation.
• Be adept at communicating with colleagues and customers to work well as a team.

Skills you need

• 5+ years of industry experience, with a focus on animation systems.
• Extensive experience with Unreal Engine, particularly with its animation systems such as Animation Blueprints, Sequencer, and Control Rig.
• Several years of experience with C++ or C#.
• Strong understanding of cross-platform animation systems, with the ability to adapt and integrate animations within different engines and pipelines.
• Experience in developing custom tools and plugins for animation within Unreal Engine or other engines.
• Proven debugging and critical analysis skills, especially in animation contexts.

Skills it would be great to have

Experience with:

• Motion capture data integration, facial animation systems, and keyframe animation techniques.
• Other animation systems or engines (e.g., Maya, MotionBuilder, Unity), and the ability to integrate these into existing pipelines.
• Modern console development.