Crystal Dynamics, a part of the Square Enix family and the studio behind the award-winning Tomb Raider franchise, is constantly on the hunt for top-tier gaming talent worldwide. We pride ourselves on attracting and developing the best talent available to concept, create, and contribute to the most exciting projects in gaming. Our 25-plus years of game development experience, as well as our combined AAA games industry pedigree, has established us as one of best studios to work for today.

Benefits for this full-time position include a competitive salary, 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance options and plenty of days of paid time-off.

Position Summary

Come be a part of the future of Tomb Raider! Crystal Dynamics is looking for an Animation Director who will be responsible for establishing direction and consistency within the gameplay and performance for future AAA experiences. As part of studio leadership, this director will collaborate with the Art Director and Cinematic Director to ensure alignment and continuity across teams. The Animation Director will provide feedback and communicate execution standards to guide the vision of the game; allowing the team creative flexibility needed to animate playable characters and creatures. Keeping high fidelity and quality as a top priority, this director will ensure that our gameplay animations are both realistic and seamless in their execution.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Actively define animation direction for project-based teams and for the studio as a whole and take responsibility for decisions and approaches taken.
Work with other directors, team leads, and studio leadership to define and help implement franchise and/or studio wide initiatives.
Partner with Cinematics Director to establish continuity between gameplay and cinematics animation
Work with production and leadership to manage project scope, including managing the balance between optimization and visual quality.
Anticipate future project challenges, spearhead solutions, and set high-level goals for the team
Identify and drive forward next-gen technologies and R&D efforts for the studio.
Act as direct supervisor for animation team leads and sets standards for animation team members
Ensure the visual elements are credible and in line with the overall game vision by leading team who must maintain quality of data integration within the game engine
Excellent verbal and written communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences, including productive feedback and brainstorming, creation / contribution to technical design documents, and code and script documentation
Strong cross-departmental communication and ability to work with teams in different locations.
Positive attitude, strong work ethic and the ability to work in a highly collaborative team environment
Extremely strong technical and interpersonal problem-solving skills

Essential Requirements

Experience providing strategic leadership for gameplay animation as an Animation Director or Lead Animator on high-quality 3rd person titles (AAA preferred)
Deep knowledge of both historical and current animation trends for games specifically with gameplay cycles
Proven experience leading a specialized team of individuals in your field to meet goals on time and at quality.
Able to guide an entire team, ensuring the quality/vision are consistent and the appropriate style over the course of a project, with emphasis on realistic performances.
Understanding how to setup and work with animation blending trees and state machines
Deep understanding and ability to work inside of game engines
Ability to evaluate and solve pipeline, tool and workflow inefficiencies
Knowledge of Mocap and understanding what makes quality/performance

Preferred Requirements

Experience working in Unreal Engine

We are committed to identifying and implementing positive and persistent measures to ensure equal opportunity in the recruitment, hiring, development, training, promotion and compensation of a diverse team employee group. This includes persons of different race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender identity or gender expression, pregnancy, breastfeeding or medical conditions related to breastfeeding, genetic characteristic, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, medical condition, political affiliation, age, veteran status, uniform service member status, marital status, physical or mental disability, or citizenship, as well as any other classifications protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.