Lead Animator

1 Month ago • 4 Years +

Animation

Job Description

As the Animation Lead for Eleventh Hour Games, you will drive the vision for gameplay animation while staying hands-on to create high-quality animations. You will provide direction for a cohesive style, collaborating with the design team to enhance the game experience. This role requires an understanding of development cycles and workflows to mentor the team effectively, communicating openly, staying agile, and making efficient decisions in an indie environment.

Good To Have:

Fluent in Spanish

Must Have:

Drive vision for gameplay animation
Create high-quality animations
Collaborate with design team on animation design and implementation
Lead execution on animation design and implementation
Create and facilitate project schedules
Identify and mitigate project and team risks
Document and refine project processes
Convey Creative Director's animation direction
Ensure quality objectives are met
4+ years of industry experience
3+ years experience in Animation focused roles
2+ years of leadership/mentoring experience
Experience delivering products while managing a remote team
Working experience with Maya, Unity and/or Unreal, project management software
Ability to work core studio hours (10am-4pm CST)

Perks:

Flexible fully remote working arrangements
35 paid time off days at start of year
90% paid health coverage premiums for U.S. based employees + dependents
Dental, Vision for U.S. based employees + dependents
401K for U.S. based employees

Add these skills to join the top 1% applicants for this job

team-management

unreal

unity

game-texts

agile-development

clickup

maya

What is your role?

As the Animation Lead for Eleventh Hour Games, you will drive the vision for gameplay animation while staying hands-on to create high-quality animations yourself. You’ll provide the direction and context needed to achieve a cohesive style while collaborating closely with the design team to create high-quality animations that enhance the game experience.

This role requires a understanding of development cycles and workflows to mentor and guide the team effectively. The ideal candidate communicates openly in an indie environment, stays agile when priorities shift, and makes thoughtful, efficient decisions to keep production moving smoothly.

Responsibilities

Work closely with the design team to understand animation needs and lead execution on animation design and implementation
Creating and facilitating project schedules, creating and implementing a plan for project resources, workflow and milestones
Identify project and team risks through regular monitoring of production status, team morale and communication channels. Utilize this information to execute early intervention and preventative measures
Document, communicate, administer, and refine project processes. Identify opportunities for improvement, and work with your team to find creative solutions, and execute solutions with them and their teams
Convey the Creative Directors animation direction for gameplay and cinematics to your team in an efficient and actionable manner
Feedback and validate the work carried out by the various teams to ensure that quality objectives are met
Ensure the project’s direction is followed by working in close collaboration with the Producers, Animators, and Artists
Help plan the work in collaboration with the production team who oversees planning

Qualifications

4+ years of industry experience, 3+ years experience in Animation focused role(s)
Demonstrable experience in animation and team management through the full-cycle of game development, from conception to shipping
A passion for leadership/mentoring with 2+ years of prior experience in a similar role
Experience delivering products while managing a remote team (including experience with team member feedback and evaluation processes)
Demonstrable working experience with the tools and programs: Maya, Unity and/or Unreal, project management software (such as Clickup)
Ability to work core studio hours (10am-4pm CST)

Pluses:

Fluent in Spanish

Why Eleventh Hour Games?

EHG is a fast growing studio, focused on a passion for top-down action RPGs. We value open communication, close-knit teamwork, and opportunity for ownership and growth! Our mission is to gather and empower the next generation of creators to forge extraordinary games. Extraordinary games build passionate communities, which create passionate people. Passionate people turn into next year's creators. With our debut title Last Epoch, we are moving fast into the next round of adventure!