Senior/Lead Gameplay Animator - 3C & FPS

Role overview A game development studio is hiring a Senior or Lead Gameplay Animator to own Character, Controls, and Camera (3C) work on an AAA first-person shooter. The role blends hands-on animation craft with engine-level implementation, taking features from early prototypes through final in-engine polish.

Responsibilities - Own gameplay animation features end-to-end, including reference gathering, prototyping, asset creation, engine integration, debugging, and polish. - Author high-quality character movement and action animations covering locomotion, directional changes, stance transitions, traversal, and combat. - Contribute to first-person animation and its relationship with full-body movement, weapon handling, and camera feedback. - Build and refine animation graphs, state machines, blend setups, and additive layers in-engine. - Partner with designers and programmers to refine responsiveness, action timing, transitions, and interruption behavior while preserving believable weight and physicality. - For Lead-level appointments, set animation quality benchmarks, mentor teammates, and guide feature planning alongside direct creation work.

Requirements - Proven experience creating and implementing gameplay animation for AAA first-person shooters. - Strong portfolio demonstrating body mechanics, weight, timing, posing, and responsive gameplay animation. - Practical experience integrating animation assets into a game engine and iterating inside playable builds. - Working knowledge of animation graphs, state machines, blending, additive animation, and gameplay-driven transitions. - Proficiency with professional animation tools and both keyframe and motion-capture workflows. - Strong ownership, clear communication, and a track record of delivering within production constraints.

Nice to have - Experience on recent AAA FPS productions with a high bar for movement and combat responsiveness. - Direct involvement in establishing or evolving 3C animation systems from early development. - AAA action or action-adventure background involving traversal, melee combat, or character interactions. - Technical animation skills such as inverse kinematics, motion matching, procedural animation, motion warping, or retargeting. - Scripting or tool-development experience that improves animation iteration speed.

Benefits and work setup Relocation to China is preferred; remote arrangements may be considered based on location, time-zone compatibility, and collaboration needs.