Bring character performance to life for real-time experiences at Apple in Cupertino, CA (onsite). In this role, you will design and author responses that feel expressive, responsive, and well-timed within real-time constraints. You will collaborate closely with animators and engineers to drive behavior, animation, speech, and timing from contextual input, with a strong focus on believable social interactions.
Compensation: Base pay range is USD 144,600 - 263,800 per year, depending on skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
What you’ll do
- Author complete character interactions, from first pass through final tuning
- Drive animation, expression, speech, and timing from contextual input so each response feels intentional
- Design interactions that remain believable across a range of social contexts
- Collaborate with animators and engineers on the animation each interaction requires
- Work with the engineering team on tool design and development
- Explore emerging techniques for interactive character behavior
What you bring
- Experience authoring and tuning NPC or companion character behaviors using tools such as behavior trees, state machines, utility systems, or visual scripting
- Working knowledge of interactive animation, including idles, reactions, look-ats, and additive layers
- Experience with real-time game engines such as Unity, Unreal, or others
- Understanding of technical constraints in real-time environments
- Strong ability to provide and receive feedback in a collaborative, cross-discipline environment
Preferred background
- Background in animation, acting, physical comedy, or improvisation
- Familiarity with conversational systems, including latency and failure modes
- Solid grasp of traditional principles of animation and performance
- Experience with prototyping, iterating, and evaluation
- Experience with themed entertainment, animatronics, or interactive installation work
Tools and technologies
- behavior trees, state machines, utility systems, visual scripting
- interactive animation
- Unity, Unreal
Benefits
- Base pay range between $144,600 and $263,800 (depends on skills, qualifications, experience, and location)
- Opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple’s discretionary employee stock programs
- Eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards
- Can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Comprehensive medical and dental coverage
- Retirement benefits
- Discounted products and free services
- Reimbursement for certain educational expenses, including tuition for formal education related to advancing your career
- This role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation
- Apple benefit, compensation, and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program
This position emphasizes a deep understanding of social interaction and technical proficiency in behavior authoring tools, while meeting real-time constraints and maintaining high creative standards. Expression, animation, and speech come together in performance, with dialogue authored in partnership with writers.
