Principal Software Engineer, 3D Animation - Unpublished R&D Product

Riot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. As a Principal Software Engineer, you’ll work alongside other engineers to implement technical solutions at a company-wide scale. You’ll collaborate with teams to ensure high quality and stack applicability, and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.

As a Principal Software Engineer on our unpublished MMO, you will design, implement, and iterate on animation systems that bring characters to life and empower artists and designers. You will work in a collaborative team alongside technical artists, animators, gameplay engineers, and designers to ensure high-quality character motion is seamlessly integrated into the game experience by delivering scalable, performant, and expressive animation systems. You will report into the Senior Director of Software Engineering.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement scalable and performant real-time animation systems and pipelines tailored for game development

• Collaborate closely with animators, technical artists, and designers to empower high-fidelity character performance and interactivity

• Contribute to the architecture and technical direction for animation features including state machines, IK systems, and procedural motion

• Optimize runtime performance and memory usage of animation systems across platforms

• Drive the integration of animation tools with engine features

• Lead and participate in technical planning, prototyping, and feature development

• Promote best practices in animation engineering and mentor other developers in this specialty

• Help evolve content workflows and pipelines to support iteration and scale

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of professional experience as a software engineer in the game industry, with focus on real-time animation systems.

• Proficient in C++ and Python, with strong debugging and performance optimization skills

• Shipped at least one AAA game title featuring high-quality animation systems

• Solid foundation in 3D math

• Experience with modern runtime animation techniques - motion matching, runtime rigs, advanced blending techniques

• Experience collaborating across disciplines including animation, tech art, and gameplay design

• Pragmatic decision-making, strong product sense, and a deep empathy for player experience

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience working on character-driven games

• Prior work on dynamic or procedural animation systems

• Experience refining animator workflows and tools in partnership with tech art

• Familiarity with working with and extending tools like Maya

• Experience with asset pipelines, version control, and data-driven animation architectures

• Knowledge of Iris or similar data replication frameworks (optional if applicable)

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you’re working directly on a new player-facing experience or you’re supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we’re better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we’re looking forward to your application.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data

• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors

• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks

• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.