Animation Director (Apex Legends)

Founded in 2010 by the original creators of the Call of Duty franchise, Respawn was created with the philosophy that when accomplished people have creative freedom, they'll make extraordinary games that achieve the unexpected. From our roots as an indie studio to joining the roster of studios at Electronic Arts, this remains our guiding principle. Our shipped titles include critically acclaimed multi-platform games Apex Legends, Titanfall, Titanfall 2, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Join us for the opportunity to create groundbreaking games with some of the best developer talent in the industry.

We are looking for an Animation Director to join our game team and continue to develop and evolve our signature animation and personality. The ideal candidate is an experienced leader who will lead and empower a team of world-class gameplay animators to do their most amazing work, while planning and leading the efforts of gameplay animation to support the overall direction of the game. The role reports to the Creative Director and carries substantial creative and managerial responsibility for the animation department.

Why Join Us?

• This is a rare leadership opportunity to drive the animation vision for Apex Legends, and be a key stakeholder in the creative direction of the franchise.
• You seek a role where your organizational and leadership skills can grow further, and you are excited to take on the challenges of leading an animation department.
• You value a gameplay-focused culture that strives to build trust, connection, and candidness within the team.
• No crunch or overtime. We do not glorify or encourage this behavior.

Responsibilities

• Mentor, develop, and lead a world-class animation team.
• Help improve our existing animation tooling, processes, and pipelines, striving for peak animation team efficiency, while collaborating with our code team.
• Drive the animation quality bar. Set artistic and technical best practices for the gameplay animation team.
• Guide the animation team to deliver high-quality characters that stay true to their identities.
• Work with Designers to achieve responsive, immersive gameplay that feels rewarding to our players.
• Work together with Artists and Riggers to realize the functionalities of our characters, weapons, and abilities.
• Help to facilitate mocap shoots and contribute to the whole process, including initial organization, directing, and distributing the data to the character-focused animation team.
• Drive communication across all disciplines to achieve alignment within the game team.
• Help us create high-quality, visually stunning, and emotionally resonant animation content that captivates audiences and leaves a lasting impression.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional game development experience as a gameplay animator.
• At least 3 years experience leading other gameplay animators in a formal capacity, including coaching and administrative responsibilities.
• A deep knowledge of gameplay animation requirements for the FPS genre.
• Mature, collaborative leadership skills.
• Proficiency in implementing animation in a game engine such as Unreal (or similar tier in proprietary engines).
• Mastery of relevant software packages such as Maya and MotionBuilder.
• Experience with first-person weapons and full-body animations.
• Experience collaborating with other disciplines - especially Design, Code, and Art.
• Experience animating cameras, with an understanding of cinematography - especially action sequences.
• Practical, hands-on experience with motion capture acquisition as well as motion editing (re-posing, re-timing, and plussing mocap data).

Access to an online portfolio of work (or practical equivalent) is required. This should demonstrate the depth and range of a) your own hands-on animation work in shipped video game projects and b) non-hands-on content you have driven as a leader in animation teams.

• British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria)
  • $151,800 - $208,900 CAD

• California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. Sacramento)
  • $170,500 - $259,300 USD

In the US, we offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.

In British Columbia, we offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.