Animation Systems Programmer

Company: Rockstar North
Location: San Diego
Posted on: July 1, 2025

Job Description:

Become part of a team working on some of the most rewarding, large-scale creative projects to be found in any entertainment medium - all within an inclusive, highly-motivated environment where you can learn and collaborate with some of the most talented people in the industry. Rockstar is on the lookout for a talented Animation Systems Programmer to join the Animation R&D team. This position will help us in developing advanced animation systems for large open world character-based games. We are looking for a candidate with strong C++ programming skills, good knowledge of and interest in character animation systems, and passion for realistic, high quality character motion. This is a full-time, in-office position based out of Rockstar’s new state-of-the-art game development studio in Carlsbad, CA. WHAT WE DO • We develop animation technology, from performance capture to a sophisticated runtime engine, for massive open world games. • We are a global team of programmers and researchers who collaborate on pushing the boundaries of character animation on next generation hardware. • We support and work closely with performance capture, technical art, animation, physics, and gameplay teams across multiple Rockstar studios. RESPONSIBILITIES • Join our core animation technology team and work closely with animation, gameplay, physics, graphics, technical art, and tools teams across different Rockstar studios. • Develop, maintain, extend, and support an extensive high-level animation system, pipeline, and tools. • Implement well designed, robust, highly optimal new animation features, integrating them into our existing animation, gameplay, physics, and graphics systems. • Keep up to date with the latest academic and industry breakthroughs, independently research and develop improvements to continuously push our technology forward. QUALIFICATIONS • A degree in Computer Science or related discipline. • 3 years of industry experience working as an engine or animations systems programmer. • Industry experience working on AAA character based games, or character based VFX animation. • Experience developing within a large existing codebase, collaborating or working independently within a large team. SKILLS • Strong C/C++ programming skills. • Familiarity with common optimization and multi-threading techniques. • Good communication skills, ability to clearly share complex technical information with other programmers, animators and technical artists. • Strong 3D math skills. PLUSES Please note that these are desirable skills and are not required to apply for the position. • C# or python programming skills. • Experience creating, extending or working directly with an animation system within a game engine. • Involvement with pipeline or UI based tools development or support. • Experience creating or working directly with physics or gameplay systems. • Practical success optimizing or debugging large/complex multithreaded C++ code.

Keywords: Rockstar North, Catalina Island , Animation Systems Programmer, IT / Software / Systems , San Diego, California