Software Engineer, Cinematic Tools at Absurd Ventures – Santa Monica | Jobyssey

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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