Software Engineer, Cinematic Tools
At a glance
Mid-level Software Engineering role at Absurd Ventures. Santa Monica · $130,000–$155,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build and maintain tools that move cinematic content from capture through production systems and into games
- Work with production leads to define audio and motion-capture tool needs, then build, test and support the resulting systems
- Help animators, audio engineers and cinematic producers ingest, create and export content through studio tools
- Plan technical work, estimate tasks and review progress against milestones
- Troubleshoot tools for production staff during shoots and guide creative colleagues using coding agents
What you bring
- At least five years in game development focused on capturing, managing or authoring cinematic content
- At least two years working in Unreal Engine, with Sequencer, animation or audio systems as relevant experience
- At least one year building desktop applications in C# or a comparable language
- You have shipped an AAA game in an engineering position
Who this fits
This role suits an engineer who enjoys supporting creative teams and solving production problems across varied technical skill levels. You should be comfortable working with AI coding agents and in both PC and Mac environments. The position is full-time and on-site in Santa Monica, California.
From the employer
Summary
We are seeking a highly experienced and collaborative Software Engineer to help drive the design, implementation, and support of tools for Absurd’s cinematic content pipeline.
As a Cinematics Pipeline Tools Engineer, you will be passionate about developing tools and systems that enable animators, audio engineers, and cinematic producers to create world-class cinematic content for our games.
Your mission will be to ensure a streamlined process for moving content from capture through a variety of production tools and ultimately into our games. You will work across a broad range of technologies and workflows, developing C# tools to automate audio and motion capture collection and processing; C# and Node.js tools to support studio operations such as scheduling and actor database management; tools for ingesting assets into Unreal Engine; C++ and Python tools for moving content to and from external applications such as Premiere, Maya, and Pro Tools; and C++ tools for working with cinematic content directly within Unreal Engine.
Core Responsibilities
- Work directly with leadership from Absurd’s production department to identify audio and motion capture toolchain requirements, and then build, test, and support those tools.
- Support and guide work done by creative staff who use agentic coding as part of their regular workflows.
- Interface with animators, audio engineers, cinematic producers to design, implement, and support tools for ingesting, authoring, and exporting cinematic content.
- Participate in technical planning, task estimation, and milestone reviews.
- Work directly with studio production staff to provide troubleshooting and support during production shoots.
Core Qualifications
- 5+ years of professional game development experience with a focus on systems for cinematic content capture, management, and authoring
- 2+ years of professional experience working in Unreal Engine, ideally with experience working with Unreal Sequencer, animation systems, and audio systems
- 1+ year professional experience developing desktop applications in C# or similar language
- Ability and desire to thrive in a fast-paced production environment
- Superb written and verbal communication skills. You will be working with a wide range of studio staff with very different technical skillsets
- Comfortable using AI coding agents and helping non-engineers use them
- Comfortable working in both PC and Mac environments
- Shipped at least one AAA title in an engineering role
- A customer-centric mindset with excellent problem-solving and technical troubleshooting skills
- Thirst to learn, experiment, and grow in a rapidly evolving technical environment
Plus if...
- Hands-on experience developing support tooling for Wwise, ProTools, Premiere, Da DaVinci Resolve, and/or Maya
- Experience working with motion capture systems like Captury and Xsens
- Experience working with narrative authoring systems like Articy
- Experience working with automation pipelines like Horde, TeamCity, or Jenkins
Description
- Full-time job with benefits.
- Role is on-site in Santa Monica, CA.
- Office is located near downtown Santa Monica – near metro and freeways.
The base pay range for this position is $130,000 to $155,000 per year. Actual compensation is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a competitive package of benefits including vacation time, sick time, company holidays, parental leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) matching to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.
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