Associate Animation Director, Living World - Elsewhere Entertainment (Game Animation)

Location: Santa Monica, California, United States of America

Base pay: $126,800–$234,580 annually in the U.S.; incentive compensation may also be available.

Company

hirify.global develops interactive entertainment and gaming franchises, with Elsewhere Entertainment creating a new intellectual property.

What you will do

• Define and drive the animation vision for living-world systems, ambient behaviors, environmental interactions, and authored world vignettes.
• Lead cross-functional development with Animation, Design, Engineering, Art, Audio, and Narrative teams from concept through implementation and polish.
• Guide scalable animation systems supporting emergent gameplay, contextual behaviors, and dynamic world interactions.
• Translate creative goals into direction, priorities, and actionable development plans.
• Review work in context, resolve artistic, technical, and production challenges, and identify risks and dependencies.
• Mentor animators and animation leads while representing living-world animation in planning, reviews, and milestone decisions.

Requirements

• Extensive game-animation experience, including leadership on one or more shipped AAA titles.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and influencing creative direction across departments.
• Understanding of animation, AI, gameplay systems, narrative, audio, and environmental storytelling.
• Experience with systemic content such as ambient behaviors, contextual interactions, social systems, crowds, or living-world features.
• Experience with game engines, animation systems, state machines, blending, procedural techniques, and implementation pipelines.
• Proficiency with Maya and familiarity with modern motion-capture and game-animation pipelines.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings or reimbursement accounts, and insurance coverage.
• 401(k) with company match, tuition reimbursement, and charitable donation matching.
• Paid holidays and vacation, sick time, floating holidays, parental leave, and bereavement leave.
• Mental health, wellbeing, and fitness programs, plus free and discounted games.
• Relocation assistance may be available if moving locations is required for the job.