Lead Animator

Reporting to the Animation Director, the Lead Animator helps bring the project’s animation vision to life. You’ll guide the animation team in translating the director’s creative intent into high-quality, responsive gameplay animations, ensuring consistency, technical excellence, and timely delivery across the production.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the Animation Director to ensure the creative vision is reflected in all gameplay and character animations.
• Define and maintain animation quality standards across the team.
• Plan, assign, and track animation tasks and schedules, maintaining visibility on priorities and progress.
• Lead, mentor, and support the animation team — including senior and associate leads.
• Oversee gameplay animation creation, focusing on fluidity, responsiveness, and player feedback.
• Collaborate with art, design, and technical leads to integrate animations seamlessly into gameplay.
• Review and provide constructive feedback on animation work.
• Direct and manage motion capture sessions and data cleanup.
• Supervise facial animation workflows and performance capture integration.
• Drive team efficiency and implement best practices in workflow and pipeline usage.
• Contribute to improving animation tools, systems, and processes in Unreal Engine.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional animation experience, ideally on AAA or high-quality indie titles.
• Proven ability to deliver high-quality animation content on schedule.
• Expertise in gameplay animation, ideally with FPS experience.
• Strong leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency in Unreal Engine and Autodesk Maya (knowledge of MotionBuilder or Blender is a plus).
• Hands-on experience with motion capture and facial animation workflows.
• Excellent English communication skills, written and spoken.
• Strong technical understanding of animation systems, state machines, and real-time implementation.

Bonus Points

• Experience with motion matching systems.
• Technical animation or tools development experience.
• Passion for expressive, responsive, player-driven animation.