Senior Animation Programmer

CD PROJEKT SA

Senior Animation Programmer at CD PROJEKT RED, implementing animation technology for Cyberpunk 2. Collaborating across disciplines to enhance player experience with lifelike animations.

Posted 5/1/2026full-timeRemote • Vancouver • 🇨🇦 CanadaSenior💰 CA$127,200 - CA$209,900 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Unreal Engine

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Responsible for the implementation of CDPR-specific extensions and animation technology while working with the code for Unreal Engine's animation technology, tools, and pipelines
Collaborate closely with animators, designers, character artists, and gameplay engineers
Creating large animated crowds with intricate behaviors
Implementing complex interaction mechanics that seamlessly integrate animations into the environment
Developing realistic character reactions for deep narrative sequences
Developing bespoke animation systems and extensions for Unreal 5 animation systems to support character locomotion & lifelike behaviors, object & world interaction, large animated crowds, and more
Developing gameplay mechanics related to locomotion and animation
Writing readable, high quality, efficient C++ code
Maintaining, debugging, profiling, and bug fixing code to achieve the best quality and performance
Documenting code and work, creating debug tools for other developers, creating tests to cover existing functionality

Requirements

What you’ll need

5+ years of practical expertise in designing and implementing modern game animation systems
Thorough understanding of how animations are integrated in complex animation blend trees and state graphs
Understanding of IK systems and their interaction with traditional FK solutions to ground characters in the environment
Knowledge of modern game animation systems architectures
Deep knowledge of C++
Advanced math & algorithmic skills required to implement bespoke animation algorithms and functionality
Advanced knowledge of multithreading practices and algorithms
Thorough understanding of the overall character animation & geometry deformation stack
Excellent communication and collaboration skills
Solid foundation in Unreal Engine 5, specifically, features and systems related to animation (Nice to have)
Knowledge of motion-matching technology (Nice to have)
Experience in creating a AAA title for game consoles, debugging and profiling these games in a console environment (Nice to have)
Proven track record of addressing performance issues related to large numbers of animated NPCs (Nice to have)
Experience developing systems accelerated by GPUs (Nice to have)

Benefits

Comp & perks

Company-paid medical healthcare (dental, vision, and mental)
Free mental health support, including access to counseling, psychiatric care, and a variety of well-being webinars
Paid leave — 26 days of vacation, 10 sick days, & 12 calendar holidays per year
RRSP with employer matching
Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA) – $100 per month to use towards fitness, wellness, internet, home office equipment, learning, streaming services, and more
Menstrual leave — employees who menstruate can take one extra day off when experiencing period pain
RED Parents Network — support for working parents
Flexible working hours
Trainings, lectures, and courses — internal workshops, knowledge-sharing initiatives, online tutorials, and e-learning classes are all available
A welcome pack filled with goodies — to help you feel right at home once you join the team.
Dog-friendly office — bring your pooch with you and look after them while working! There’s always a furry friend or two to meet.
Truly international working environment — a chance to meet and work with a diverse selection of people from all around the world.
No dress-code — we like to keep it casual.

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

C++animation technologyanimation systemsanimation blend treesstate graphsIK systemsmultithreadingalgorithmic skillsgeometry deformationdebugging

Soft Skills

communicationcollaboration