Character Artist and Graphics Engineer

Salary Competitive

We are an artificial intelligence and social robotics startup with the vision to make interaction with technology truly human. Founded by four PhDs in social robotics at KTH, we are an ambitious, small team of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs backed by prominent investors. Our product is the most expressive and customizable social robot on the market, powered by a state-of-the-art multi-modal conversational platform and a developer suite used by 3rd party developers to build robot apps.


We are looking for an experience and multi-disciplinary designer/engineer to lead and champion the design, creation and animation of characters for Furhat - one of the key features of the platform allowing design of personalities. You will also lead the development of tools for the production of different physical embodiments of the characters, and the development of simulation tools for skill development.

This role requires a special and unique mix of experience and skills in 3D design and animation, along with programming experience in tool development, graphics, rendering and animation systems. 

You will join a very ambitious team of scientists, entrepreneurs and engineers building the most advanced social robotics platform on the market. Further on, you will be an early employee at one of the most promising and high impact startups around with mission to revolutionize how we interact with in, backed by some of Europe’s most prominent investors. 

By joining Furhat, you will join us on a journey to create world leading conversational robots that interact with us the way we interact with each other, and be in the driver’s seat in the development of a new genre of applications between human and machines. 

As a Character Artist and Graphics Engineer​, you would: 

  • Work with application developers to design powerful, highly expressive, high fidelity characters for Furhat, from abstract and cartoonish to highly realistic and human-like. 
  • Work with the platform team to integrate robot characters with the Furhat software platform.
  • Develop complex facial rigs that combine deformation, texturing and physical degrees of freedom into powerful high-level controls
  • Work with the product manager, cross-functional design team and external stakeholders to guide the design and functionality of the facial animation systems. 
  • Lead the innovation and development of the tools to automate the process of developing facial animations and characters, and the development of the physical surfaces and rigs that are manufactured to work with the facial animations in the robot. 
  • Lead the development of the robot simulation tools for desktop development. 
  • Work with application developers to develop graphics design tools used in Furhat conversational skills. 
  • Stay up to date with the relevant design and technology trends, game engines and 3D animation tools. 

We would like that you have: 

  • Proven track-record in the design and animation of 3D characters, with focus on facial rigging and animation.
  • Experience in design and animation tools such as Maya, 3D Max, or similar tools.
  • Experience in shader programming and real-time rendering pipelines.
  • Experience in advanced use of game engines (especially Unity3d) including programming and scripting.
  • Highly self-motivated, with previous experience working independently on ambiguous problems.
  • Demonstrable user-centered design approaches, interaction design standards and methodology.
  • Be able to effectively communicate your designs to various stakeholders.
  • Ability to perform under heavy workload demands, tight deadlines, and in quickly changing requirements.
  • Be self-motivated, independent, with an uncompromising drive for excellence in execution and communication.

Nice to haves:

  • Interest and experience in interactive and real-time systems.
  • Knowledge and experience in dialogue systems and speech technology.
  • Research and experience in facial animation, lip synchronization, and speech driven animation.
  • Previous experience in project and team management.
  • Experience in working in startup environments, with high levels of uncertainty.

Perks and benefits

This job comes with several perks and benefits

Flexible working hours
Flexible working hours

Time is precious. Make it count. Morning person or night owl, this job is for you.

Free coffee / tea
Free coffee / tea

Get your caffeine fix to get you started and keep you going.

Near public transit
Near public transit

Easy access and treehugger friendly workplace.

Social gatherings
Social gatherings

Social gatherings and games; hang out with your colleagues.

Free office snacks
Free office snacks

Peckish after lunch? We got your back with soft drinks, treats and fruit.

Pension plan
Pension plan

We take care of you, even when you are old and wrinkly.

See all 11 benefits

Working at
Furhat Robotics

We are an AI and social robotics startup with the vision to make interaction with technology truly human. Founded by four PhDs in social robotics at KTH, we are an ambitious, small team of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs backed by prominent investors. Our product is the most expressive and customizable social robot on the market, powered by a state-of-the-art multi-modal conversational platform and a developer suite used by 3rd party developers to build robot applications.

Read more about Furhat Robotics

company gallery image