Lead Game Development Expert, AI-Asset & Animation Production in London

Tencent Overseas IT has the mission to empower Tencent’s rapid global growth with future ready, global IT platforms, applications and services. We are chartered to lead the Overseas IT strategy, architecture, roadmap and execution. Satisfying our internal/external customers and becoming a world class global IT team are our top aspirations.

We are looking for a lead game development expert with deep AAA production experience to strengthen co-development and technical partnership between Tencent and its overseas investment and partner studios. The successful candidate will bring a strong technical art and animation background, with a particular focus on asset production and animation workflows. Instead of covering the full breadth of art disciplines, this role concentrates on AI-enabled asset creation, asset performance optimisation, asset visual fidelity and on the animation side skeleton design, rigging and physics-based animation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Participate in co-development projects between Tencent and its overseas investment and partner studios, providing senior expertise in AI-enabled asset production, asset performance optimisation, asset visual quality, skeleton design, rigging and physics-based animation.
• Make AI-driven asset and animation improvement a central pillar of technical collaboration. Identify concrete opportunities across the full asset lifecycle (modelling, texturing, materials, LODs, performance profiling) and animation disciplines (skeleton generation, skinning, control rigs, cloth, hair, rigid-body dynamics and ragdoll setups).
• Lead or contribute to proof-of-concept projects that integrate AI tools with existing asset authoring tools, animation rigging environments, physics engines, and Unreal Engine or equivalent game engines.
• Evaluate the suitability, feasibility and expected value of AI solutions for asset and animation challenges. Define measurable metrics covering asset creation time, memory/performance budgets, visual fidelity, rigging speed, animation quality, physics stability and overall pipeline scalability.
• Work closely with Art Directors, Technical Artists, Animators, Riggers, Character Artists, Environment Artists, Engineers, Producers and AI specialists to translate creative and production requirements into practical, measurable solutions focused on assets and animation.
• Drive the transition of successful AI experiments into daily production workflows. Collect user feedback, refine asset and animation pipelines, and document repeatable implementation approaches for asset generation, optimisation, rigging automation and physics setup.
• Establish human-review and quality-control mechanisms for AI-assisted asset and animation workflows, ensuring visual consistency, animation fidelity, physical plausibility, performance targets and intellectual property/data security are respected.
• Lead technical investigations and solution designs for complex asset production challenges (e.g., automated LOD generation, material and texture optimisation, shader performance) and animation challenges (e.g., auto-rigging, physics-aware motion, real-time cloth simulation).
• Bridge overseas studio requirements with Tencent’s internal AI capabilities, asset platforms, animation technology stacks and subject-matter experts.
• Document reusable AI use cases, asset pipeline standards, rigging and physics best practices, performance guidelines and evaluation methods. Share knowledge through workshops, technical reviews and project retrospectives.
• Monitor trends in generative AI, neural rendering, procedural content generation, machine learning for deformation and physics, digital humans and real-time graphics, assessing their practical value for AAA asset and animation production.

Who We Look For:

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Graphics, Digital Media, Game Development, Art and Design, Animation, Software Engineering or a related discipline. Equivalent professional experience will also be considered.
• At least 8 years of professional experience in technical art, animation technology or a closely related discipline, with significant exposure to AAA asset and animation pipelines.
• Experience operating as a Senior Technical Artist, Lead Technical Artist, Technical Art Director, Animation Pipeline Lead, Rigging Lead or equivalent senior role with a clear focus on assets and/or animation.
• Proven development experience on a recognised AAA game project, including at least one shipped AAA title where you were directly responsible for asset optimisation, rigging, or physics-animation workflows.
• Strong understanding of the complete AAA asset and animation lifecycle, from initial modelling and rigging, through version control and validation, to engine integration, performance profiling and runtime optimisation.
• Strong interest in generative AI, machine learning and intelligent automation, especially as applied to asset generation, asset optimisation, auto-rigging, motion synthesis, deformation prediction and physics simulation.
• Ability to identify high-value AI opportunities rooted in real asset and animation production challenges and progress them through proof-of-concept, workflow design, tool integration and production adoption.
• Strong experience with Unreal Engine or another major game engine, including real-time rendering, asset management, animation blueprints, physics assets and cross-platform performance constraints.
• Proficiency in Blender or Maya; working knowledge of Houdini is a plus.
• Experience with tools development or workflow automation using Python, C++, Blueprint or equivalent, particularly for asset processing, rigging automation or physics pipeline tools.
• Strong problem-solving, solution design and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to balance asset quality, animation expressiveness, engineering feasibility and production efficiency.
• Excellent English communication skills, able to lead technical discussions, conduct solution reviews, prepare documentation and collaborate effectively in an international environment.
• Willingness to work across regions and time zones and to travel to partner studios in Europe or other locations when required.
• Deep expertise in several of the following areas: (1) AAA asset production pipelines (characters, environments, props) with a strong emphasis on performance optimisation, memory budgets, LOD strategies and visual consistency. (2) Asset visual quality and efficiency: material authoring, texture optimisation, shading models, draw call management and cross-platform asset validation. (3) Skeleton design and character/creature rigging: hierarchical structures, joint placement, modular rig systems, and auto-rigging methods. (4) Skinning and deformation: linear blend skinning, dual quaternion skinning, corrective blendshapes, muscle systems and deformation quality control. (5) Physics-based animation: cloth, hair, rigid-body dynamics, ragdoll setups, secondary motion, and real-time physics constraints in engine.

As an equal opportunity employer, we firmly believe that diverse voices fuel our innovation and allow us to better serve our users and the community. We foster an environment where every employee of Tencent feels supported and inspired to achieve individual and common goals.