Job Summary:
Absurd Ventures is an early stage company seeking an experienced AI Engineer to join their team. The role involves building systems and features that support a rich open world in Unreal Engine 5, focusing on AI systems and collaboration with various teams.
Responsibilities:
• Design, implement, and maintain AI systems, features, and tools that support a dynamic and reactive open world.
• Collaborate with design, animation, and gameplay teams to prototype, iterate, and deliver new AI behaviors, abilities, and systemic interactions.
• Develop and support AI authoring tools that enable designers to efficiently create, test, and tune behaviors at scale.
• Build performant, well-architected C++ systems optimized for large-scale simulation and open-world streaming.
• Debug and optimize AI performance across multiple platforms, ensuring stability, scalability, and responsiveness.
• Contribute to long-term technical planning for AI systems, including architecture, workflow improvements, and new technology initiatives.
• Provide technical mentorship and support to designers and other developers who use the AI systems you build.
• Collaborate with technical leaders to uphold engineering best practices, coding standards, and documentation quality.
Qualifications:
Required:
• 1+ year of professional experience working in Unreal Engine.
• 5+ years of professional experience working on large scale games.
• Strong working knowledge of Unreal Engine 5 AI tools and systems, such as the following: Navigation (NavMesh), Behavior Trees, State Trees, EQS, Perception System, AI Controllers, Blackboards, and related frameworks.
• Expertise in modern C++ with strong software architecture, debugging, and optimization skills.
• Proven ability to design complex systems that are scalable, maintainable, and content-friendly.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating across departments and leading cross-functional initiatives involving design, animation, and gameplay engineering.
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative, solution-oriented mindset.
Preferred:
• Experience building AI for open-world, systemic, or sandbox games.
• Familiarity with Mass Entity, crowd systems, or large-scale AI simulation.
• Knowledge of animation systems (Montages, Motion Matching, Control Rig) and how they intersect with AI behavior.
• Experience developing AI debugging tools or in-editor visualization tools.
• Background in machine learning, utility systems, or experimental AI techniques.
• Passion for emergent gameplay, systemic design, and building living worlds.
Company:
Absurd Ventures is an entertainment firm that creates new intellectual property across various channels. Founded in 2021, the company is headquartered in Santa Monica, USA, with a team of 51-200 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.