Cinematic Technical Designer

Summary

We are looking for a Cinematic Technical Designer to join our team and help bring story moments to life across an all-new open world IP built in Unreal Engine 5. This role lives at the intersection of mission design, cinematics, and systems — responsible for implementing cinematic sequences, building tools for cinematic systems, and owning the connective tissue between player control, mission scripting, and authored content.

As a Cinematic Technical Designer at Absurd Ventures, you will work closely with Mission Designers, Animators, and Engineers to build, integrate, and polish cinematic moments across a broad range of contexts — from quiet interactive scenes to large-scale scripted set pieces. You are equally comfortable in Sequencer and Blueprint, and you understand how both tools behave in development environments and inside a live, streaming open world.

Core Responsibilities

• Implement cinematic sequences in Unreal Engine 5 using Sequencer, including full cinematics, interactive cinematics, and blended in-world moments.
• Own the "glue" between mission scripting, player control handoffs, cameras, VFX events, environment set dressing and cinematic playback — ensuring transitions are seamless and state is always clean.
• Build and maintain Blueprint logic supporting cinematic events: triggers, state management, player possession and de-possession, camera blending, and post-cinematic flow.
• Implement and modify narrative implementation in our writing tools to ensure we're ingesting the correct data with the correct timing.
• Collaborate with Mission Designers to identify where cinematics serves the design and problem-solve where authored content and systemic gameplay intersect.
• Pitch, playtest and profile cinematic needs to resolve creative problems and improve overall narrative and gameplay quality.
• Work with Animators to integrate character performances, facial animation, and mo-cap data into sequences correctly and to brief.
• Partner with Audio and Dialogue teams to ensure VO, music, and sound events are timed and triggered correctly across all cinematic contexts.
• Diagnose and resolve issues at the boundary of cinematic and open world systems — streaming, LOD, world state, and player state edge cases.
• Write and maintain clear technical documentation for cinematic pipelines, workflows, and implementation patterns.
• Proactively surface risks related to cinematic scope, performance, or implementation complexity and communicate them to Production and leads.

Core Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience as a Cinematic Technical Designer, Technical Designer, or similar role in the video game industry. Experience supporting cinematic implementation on at least one shipped AAA title.
• Strong hands-on expertise with Unreal Engine 5 Sequencer — shot tracks, event tracks, camera rigs, blending, and runtime playback.
• Solid Blueprint scripting skills, with the ability to build and debug cinematic control flows independently.
• Clear understanding of open world mission architecture — how cinematics are triggered, how player state is managed, and how streaming affects authored content.
• Fluency in the language of camera and editing: you understand shot composition, coverage, and timing, and you can implement a director's intent.
• Strong communication and cross-discipline collaboration skills. You can work across design, art, animation, and engineering without getting lost in translation.

Plus if…

• Experience with MetaHuman facial animation pipelines or driven performance systems in UE5.
• Familiarity with Perforce and large shared codebases.
• Background in film, screenwriting, or on-set production — people who think in shots tend to do this work at a different level.
• Experience with narrative branching systems or dialogue trees that intersect with cinematic delivery.
• Passion for narrative-heavy games and cinematics

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 $115,000 - $140,000 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.

- Implement cinematic sequences in Unreal Engine 5 using Sequencer, including full, interactive, and blended in-world moments. - Own the glue between mission scripting, player control handoffs, cameras, VFX, environment, and cinematic playback. - Build and maintain Blueprint logic for cinematic events, triggers, state management, and camera blending. - Implement and modify narrative data in writing tools. - Collaborate with Mission Designers on cinematic service and problem-solving at gameplay/content intersection. - Pitch, playtest, and profile cinematic needs to improve narrative and gameplay. - Work with Animators to integrate character performances and mo-cap data. - Partner with Audio and Dialogue teams for correct timing and triggering of VO, music, and sound. - Diagnose and resolve issues at the boundary of cinematic and open-world systems (streaming, LOD, world/player state). - Write and maintain clear technical documentation for cinematic pipelines. - Proactively surface risks related to cinematic scope, performance, or implementation complexity. - 3+ years of experience as a Cinematic Technical Designer or similar role in the video game industry. - Experience supporting cinematic implementation on at least one shipped AAA title. - Strong hands-on expertise with Unreal Engine 5 Sequencer (shot tracks, event tracks, camera rigs, blending, runtime playback). - Solid Blueprint scripting skills for cinematic control flows. - Clear understanding of open world mission architecture, player state, and streaming effects. - Fluency in camera and editing language (shot composition, coverage, timing). - Strong communication and cross-discipline collaboration skills.