Animator (AAA Games)

Location: Carlsbad, California, United States; onsite at the Carlsbad office four days per week. The temporary assignment is estimated to last approximately 12 months, and work arrangements may change based on business needs.

Base pay: $30.47–$56.35 hourly in the United States. Incentive compensation may be available but is not guaranteed.

Company

hirify.global is a video game developer, publisher, and distributor; High Moon Studios develops AAA titles, including games for the Call of Duty franchise.

What you will do

• Create polished action, cinematic, dialogue, and supporting animations using motion capture and hand-key authoring.
• Work with the Narrative team on cinematics, scripted in-game animations, previsualizations, and animation concepts.
• Implement and maintain animations in the game engine using proprietary tools.
• Collaborate across the studio to deliver high-quality work and provide direction on scene vision.
• Troubleshoot animation and technical issues.
• Partner with Technical Animation to improve tools and pipelines and provide development feedback.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional animation experience, including work on AAA console titles.
• Strong first-person and cinematic animation skills, with excellent awareness of timing, weight, and composition.
• Demonstrated skill in 3D animation principles and techniques.
• Solid understanding of cinematography language and storytelling techniques.
• Ability to quickly learn and master new tools, processes, and pipelines.
• Effective communication and collaboration skills, including providing direction to other disciplines and departments and giving and receiving feedback.
• Critical thinking, analytical ability, creativity, strong visual aesthetic, passion for video games, and a positive attitude.
• A portfolio is required, focused on personal contributions and including a shot breakdown of directly created work.

Nice to have

• Experience with first-person shooter games.
• Extensive knowledge of the Call of Duty games.
• Experience using generative AI tools for creative exploration.

Culture & Benefits

• Work with experienced developers on AAA game projects in a creative, collaborative studio environment.
• Temporary full-time employment is estimated at approximately 12 months; benefit eligibility may vary for temporary employees.
• Benefits may include medical, dental, vision, health spending accounts, life and disability insurance, and a 401(k) with company match.
• Paid holidays, vacation, sick time, floating holidays, parental leave, bereavement leave, and mental health and fitness programs may be available.
• Tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching, discounted games, and other voluntary benefits may be available.
• Relocation assistance may be available if the company requires a geographic move for the role.