Hybrid Lead Gameplay Animator

at Bonfire Studios

• Job title: Lead Gameplay Animator
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Senior
• Salary: $196,500 - $247,133 per year
• Degree requirement: No Education Requirement
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Orange County, United States

About the role

• Lead Animator at Bonfire Studios creating high-quality animations for their new IP. Responsible for mentoring artists and driving animation excellence in a multiplayer environment.

Responsibilities

• Inspiring and guiding the animation discipline, setting the creative vision and quality bar for characters and combat in a competitive multiplayer game.
• Leading and mentoring a lean animation team, fostering autonomy, accountability, and growth through clear expectations, constructive feedback, and thoughtful development.
• Balancing leadership with hands-on creation, contributing directly to gameplay animation while setting standards and pushing ideas forward independently.
• Partnering with cross-discipline leads (design, engineering, art, production) to align animation with gameplay systems, technical realities, and the overall player experience.
• Owning combat feel and moment-to-moment gameplay expression, ensuring characters are readable, responsive, expressive, and impactful.
• Driving production clarity and execution, prioritizing animation goals, pipelines, and team focus while balancing fidelity, performance, and schedule.
• Evolving animation systems and workflows, including thoughtful use of motion capture, keyframe techniques, and external partnerships.
• Guiding and reviewing external animation partners, maintaining a high craft bar across both internal and outsourced work.
• Contributing to studio-wide hiring, onboarding, and team-building efforts to grow and strengthen the animation discipline.
• Fostering accountability and self-sufficiency, empowering the team to solve problems proactively while maintaining strong collaboration.

Requirements

• Proven experience creating high-quality, in-game animations, ideally across multiple shipped titles.
• Understand competitive multiplayer combat and the critical role animation plays in readability, feel, and fairness.
• Strong understanding of combat systems and how animation drives responsiveness and player satisfaction.
• Experience developing animation systems, ideally in new or evolving engines.
• Comfortable owning features end-to-end, from early exploration through final implementation.
• Highly skilled at conveying character through gameplay animation, not just cinematics.
• Push for animation excellence while always putting gameplay quality first.
• Thrive in tight-knit, highly collaborative teams and communicate clearly across disciplines.
• Self-directed, adaptable, and able to focus on what matters most for the game right now.
• Value trust, openness, humility, curiosity, and enjoy learning alongside others.
• Have a growth mindset and care deeply about helping teammates develop.
• Want to make a meaningful impact on a new IP and shape both the role and the studio as we grow.

Benefits

• Every new teammate receives equity
• Full benefits package
• Extra perks to make work (and life) better