jobby: Animator/Technical Artist, JALI Inc, Toronto

Job Title: Animator/Technical Artist

Company Name: JALI Inc. 

Location: Toronto, Ontario – flexible work formats (in office, remote or hybrid model)

Salary Range: $60-95k, based on experience

Position Status: Full time

Union Status: N/A

Benefits: Yes, full benefits

Job Description:

JALI Inc., a leading software developer of synchronized speech and facial animation tools is seeking an animator or technical artist with rigging, programming skills and game pipeline experience (or combination thereof, and preference given to those with experience with UE4/5) to join our growing team and contribute meaningfully to the development of cool, powerful, and useful tools for the future of expressive digital storytelling. The successful candidate will join a critically acclaimed and Academy Award winning engineering and animation team, and will get to work on some of the most exciting and well known AAA game IP’s being released in 2022 / 2023 / 2024. 

RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Collaborate with the development team on all animation related technology, mainly focused on rigging, animation and exporters, editors, and pipelines in UNREAL ENGINE 5 
• Support the design, development, and optimization features of the Unreal plugin for JALI using a combination of C++, Python, Blueprints 
• Work closely with animation and engineering leads in the product development process, taking ideas from design, through prototyping and into production 
• Collaborate with the sales team to assemble and organize user requirements, feedback and technical challenges faced by our customers 
• Maintain and fix bugs in the JALI toolchain 
• Test, debug, profile, analyze and optimize your code
  

Requirements:

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

• A degree in Computer Science, digital college or institute and / or professional experience developing pipelines and creating tools 
• Strong Programming skills in Python, C++ and Unreal Engine Blueprints 
• Proficiency in animation (facial) and rigging (using skeletal bones or blend shapes) in Maya
  specifically and other DCC platforms 
• In depth and detailed understanding of animation and deformation in run-time and in editor 
• Knowledge of 3D mathematics (e.g. linear algebra, trigonometry and matrices). 
• Knowledge of current facial capture approaches, FACS poses, facial blend shape rigs, feature
  detection, etc. 
• Experience using source control software (i.e. Perforce, Git) 

TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS ROLE YOU WILL..

• Experience using source control software (i.e. Perforce, Git)
• Have the ability to work as part of a team 
• Be a self-starter with a can-do attitude 
• Possess a continuous learning mindset 
• Be cooperative, kind and patient 
• Communicate effectively, verbally, in writing and visually, especially when conveying complex technical information
• Demonstrate advanced analytical and problem-solving skills 
• Stay current with latest technologies/research ongoing in the field to help keep our dynamic art
  visuals at the cutting-edge regarding motion and deformation 
• Be passionate about games development, animation and creative technologies
  

Company Website, About: jaliresearch.com

At JALI we view 3D characters, whether they are hero characters, NPC, or in-car virtual assistants, as digital actors. And at their most essential, whether they are photorealistic models rendered in 4K resolution, or they are cube-headed avatars on a Minecraft server or Roblox, the way in which they are all the same, is that they all have a job to do. And that job is to give a performance. 

To power those performances, we develop artistic tools to drive the expressive performance of 3D digital characters, enabling story and character development, direction and animation capable of massive scale up with a fraction of typical resources. 

Since the fall of 2020, when we launched our first product offering in conjunction with the much anticipated AAA game release, Cyberpunk2077 with development partners CD Projekt Red, we have been powering more expansive and more dynamic character driven stories, by accelerating production pipelines and empowering animators with user friendly automated animation workflows. 

To Apply: Please apply with resume at teams@jaliresearch.com

Commitment to Barrier-Free Selection Process And Work Environment: JALI is committed to inclusion and diversity. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply. 
Possible Accommodations: Can be discussed upon request.