Principal Gameplay Animator (Gaming)

Location: Santa Monica, California, United States of America

Base pay: $136,880–$253,260 annual in the U.S.; incentive compensation may also apply.

Company

hirify.global develops and publishes interactive entertainment and gaming franchises, including Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Guitar Hero.

What you will do

• Own the quality bar for gameplay animation, with a focus on responsive, readable, and satisfying combat.
• Create and refine character animations using animation fundamentals, gameplay principles, and motion-capture data.
• Shape animation approaches for combat design, player expression, enemy behaviours, traversal, and moment-to-moment gameplay.
• Collaborate with Design, Engineering, Art, Audio, and Narrative to improve the player experience.
• Contribute to animation systems, state machines, blending, transitions, and in-engine implementation.
• Provide creative direction, feedback, mentorship, and improvements to tools, workflows, and pipelines.

Requirements

• Significant gameplay animation experience, including senior or principal-level contributions to shipped titles.
• Strong combat animation skills and understanding of combat readability, timing, hit reactions, attack cycles, locomotion, and player control.
• Experience with game engines, animation systems, and implementation.
• Knowledge of motion-capture pipelines, including editing, cleanup, and blending mocap with keyframe animation.
• Advanced proficiency in Maya and strong animation fundamentals across human and creature movement.
• Experience collaborating across disciplines, influencing creative decisions, solving technical problems, and mentoring animators.

Culture & Benefits

• Inclusive, collaborative environment based on mutual respect, thoughtfulness, empathy, and professionalism.
• Medical, dental, vision, health spending, life, disability, and dependent-care benefits, subject to eligibility.
• 401(k) with company match, tuition reimbursement, and charitable donation matching.
• Paid holidays, vacation, sick time, parental leave, bereavement leave, and other leave programs.
• Mental health, wellbeing, fitness, and free or discounted game programs.
• Relocation assistance may be available when the company requires a geographic move for the role.