Lead Animator (Gameplay Animation)

Location: Novato, California, United States

Salary: $123,200–$182,360 USD per year at the start of employment in California; additional compensation may include a bonus and/or equity awards.

Company

Cloud Chamber, a hirify.global studio, develops immersive BioShock games and AAA interactive experiences.

What you will do

• Manage, mentor, and support a team of gameplay animators through regular one-to-ones, evaluations, and goal setting.
• Partner with the Animation Director and studio leadership to define the animation vision and maintain a positive, inclusive team culture.
• Develop animation pipelines, workflows, tools, onboarding materials, Unreal Engine 5 training, and motion capture plans.
• Create hand-key animations and edit motion capture data for first-person and third-person characters.
• Collaborate with Production on milestone roadmaps, sprint planning, task delegation, issue resolution, and hiring.
• Work across design, art, engineering, animation, and audio to deliver a high-quality AAA game.

Requirements

• Multiple shipped AAA titles as a Lead, Team Lead, or Senior Animator, ideally using Unreal Engine.
• Deep knowledge of gameplay and AI animation systems, animation graph and data integration, motion capture pipelines, rigging, and prototyping.
• Strong hand-key facial animation skills, including tools such as FaceFX.
• High proficiency in animating human bipeds, organic forms, quadrupeds, and mechanical objects.
• Advanced understanding of traditional animation principles, anatomy, caricature, form, gesture, and silhouette for real-time gameplay.
• Strong communication, ownership, collaboration, organization, and mentoring skills.

Nice to have

• Professional proficiency in French for candidates located in Quebec.

Culture & Benefits

• Cross-disciplinary collaboration across design, art, engineering, animation, and audio.
• Medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance for eligible full-time employees.
• Paid holidays, vacation, sick days, parental leave, and compassionate leave.
• Wellbeing and mental-health support, family-planning support, commuter benefits, and fitness-expense reimbursement.
• Eligibility for the 401(k) plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program.