Senior Animator, Unannounced Super Fun Video Game

About the role

You are a builder who thrives in a small, highly autonomous team where ownership is paramount and process is minimal. This role centers on animation as the primary discipline, requiring you to create both expressive character performances and razor-sharp gameplay animation that feels responsive and satisfying. You will own the entire animation pipeline from rigging and implementation through final polish, making decisions independently without extensive oversight. The most successful candidates are self-driven individuals who ship work, solve problems on their own, and move projects forward through clear written communication. Because the team is small, you will also identify technical challenges, improve workflows, and occasionally step outside traditional discipline boundaries to keep momentum. You will bring personality, charm, and emotional appeal to characters while ensuring they remain readable and impactful during intense gameplay moments.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Create high-quality character, gameplay, and combat animation that forms the core feel of the game.
• Bring personality, appeal, emotion, and charm to characters through performance and facial animation.
• Create responsive, readable, and satisfying gameplay animation that supports combat and delivers clear player feedback.
• Rig, skin, and prepare assets for animation to ensure they are production-ready and efficient.
• Implement, iterate on, and polish animation directly in Unreal Engine to refine timing, spacing, and responsiveness.
• Work closely with Design and Engineering to improve gameplay feel, responsiveness, readability, and overall player experience.
• Coordinate with Character Art, Environment Art, and VFX to ensure assets integrate smoothly into the game world and mechanics.
• Identify bottlenecks and improve workflows through tooling, automation, technical solutions, or process improvements.
• Evaluate and leverage AI-assisted workflows when they meaningfully improve iteration speed, content creation, or production efficiency.
• Occasionally collaborate with external art partners to review deliverables, communicate feedback, and maintain quality standards.
• Own animation as a discipline from concept through final implementation, maintaining quality and consistency across all content.

Requirements

• A portfolio demonstrating exceptional animation work that highlights both character performance and gameplay animation.
• Demonstrated strength in character performance animation, including acting, timing, and physicality.
• Strong understanding of facial expression, appeal, and charm to make characters feel alive and engaging.
• Exceptional grasp of gameplay readability, responsiveness, combat feel, and clear player feedback.
• Proficiency in character rigging, including setup and preparation for efficient animation workflows.
• Direct experience implementing animation content in Unreal Engine and iterating based on in-engine results.
• Comfort working directly in-engine to solve problems, test ideas, and refine animation on the fly.
• The ability to independently own a discipline and make forward progress with minimal oversight or structured process.
• Strong written communication skills to collaborate effectively in a fully remote, asynchronous environment.
• Capability to discuss technical and creative tradeoffs with designers, engineers, artists, and external partners.
• Willingness to learn unfamiliar tools, workflows, or disciplines when doing so benefits the project and the team.
• Comfort using AI-assisted tools as part of a modern game development workflow to enhance speed and quality.

Nice to have

• Experience as a Technical Animator, Tech Artist, Art Director, or other cross-disciplinary role that bridges creative and technical challenges.
• Experience building tools, pipelines, procedural systems, or workflow automation to improve team efficiency.
• Experience managing external vendors or outsourcing relationships to coordinate high-quality deliverables.
• Experience shipping an indie game, participating in game jams, creating mods, or completing significant personal projects.
• Experience working on small teams where individuals routinely contribute outside their primary discipline to keep the project moving.
• Experience with cooperative action games, boss-focused encounters, or other highly replayable multiplayer experiences that inform design decisions.
• Affinity for complex competitive games such as League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, or similar titles that inform balance and readability.
• Experience with endgame MMO content such as raiding in World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, or similar games that require coordination and readability at scale.
• Familiarity with anime-inspired visual styles, character archetypes, and animation aesthetics that may influence the art direction.

Practical notes

This is a fully remote role, and the position is full-time. Much of the team's coordination happens asynchronously, so success depends on clear written communication, proactive updates, and the ability to make progress without waiting for meetings or direction. There are no specified working hours beyond the expectation of asynchronous collaboration, and the role does not require travel. There are no visa sponsorship details or application deadlines provided in this listing. The focus remains on demonstrating capability through shipped work, strong portfolios, and a history of independent ownership in game development.