Contract Game Animator

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Contract Game Animator based in United States.

This contract role offers the opportunity to bring memorable characters, creatures, and gameplay mechanics to life through expressive, high-quality 3D animation. The Game Animator will collaborate closely with animators, artists, designers, and engineers to create polished in-game animations and cinematics. You'll contribute to a distinctive visual style while ensuring animation feels natural, impactful, and responsive in gameplay. The role combines strong artistic judgment with technical understanding of body mechanics, performance, weight, and creature movement. You'll take ownership of deliverables, work within production milestones, and continuously refine animation workflows. This is an opportunity to contribute to an ambitious, fast-growing game franchise within a creative and collaborative development environment.

Accountabilities:

• Collaborate with animators and cross-functional art, design, and engineering teams to develop high-quality in-game animations and cinematics.
• Translate storyboards and creative direction into polished animation when provided.
• Create strong poses and compelling visual frames that communicate character personality and support gameplay objectives.
• Animate a diverse range of characters and creatures, including bipedal and quadrupedal designs, across dynamic and atmospheric gameplay experiences.
• Present work to team members and leads, actively seek feedback, and incorporate revisions to improve the final result.
• Own assigned animation deliverables while managing priorities, milestones, deadlines, and consistency across the project.
• Maintain a consistent animation style and quality bar throughout production.
• Continuously evaluate and refine animation processes to improve team productivity and production efficiency.
• Contribute creative solutions to animation challenges and explore approaches beyond established workflows.
• Support the implementation of animation into game environments when required.

Requirements:

• 5 years of professional animation experience using Autodesk Maya.
• Demonstrated ability to consistently produce high-quality animation while matching an established project style and visual quality bar.
• Strong understanding of body mechanics and character movement.
• Excellent eye for performance, timing, weight, and physicality.
• Professional experience animating creatures, including both bipedal and quadrupedal characters.
• Strong creative problem-solving skills and the ability to develop solutions beyond conventional approaches.
• Self-motivated, dependable, and comfortable taking ownership of individual deliverables.
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to contribute positively to a creative, team-oriented environment.
• Experience implementing animation directly into a game engine is a plus.
• Familiarity with animation blend trees and node-based animation editors in commercial or proprietary game engines is a plus.
• Ability to work effectively within milestones, deadlines, and iterative feedback cycles.
• A professional animation portfolio or demo reel demonstrating relevant game animation work is required.
• A practical animation test may be required as part of the selection process.

Benefits:

• Base salary of $86,000--$106,000 USD annually for specified high-cost metropolitan areas including San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and the DC metropolitan area.
• Base salary of $75,000--$93,000 USD annually for locations including Austin, Denver, Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Miami.
• Base salary of $63,000--$79,000 USD annually for all other U.S. locations.
• Compensation within the applicable range is determined based on experience, qualifications, and work location.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for eligible U.S.-based full-time project hires.
• Paid time off.
• Paid sick time.
• Paid holidays.
• Remote work opportunity within the United States.
• Opportunity to contribute to a highly visible, rapidly growing game franchise.
• Collaborative environment working alongside experienced animation, art, design, and engineering professionals.