Lead Animator

Job Description

Ubisoft's 20,000 team members, working across more than 30 countries around the world, are bound by a common mission to enrich players' lives with original and memorable gaming experiences. Their commitment and talent have brought to life many acclaimed franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, and many more to come. Ubisoft is an equal opportunity employer that believes diverse backgrounds and perspectives are key to creating worlds where both players and teams can thrive and express themselves. If you are excited about solving game-changing challenges, cutting edge technologies and pushing the boundaries of entertainment, we invite you to join our journey and help us create the unknown.

Ubisoft Düsseldorf is home to nearly 500 people, making up several teams dedicated to deliver AAA excellence and innovation across a wide portfolio of games and technologies.

Job Description

As our new Lead Animator (f/m/d) at Ubisoft Düsseldorf, you will be responsible for leading and managing a projects' Animation team, setting objectives for both short term and long term, driving quality standards, creating benchmarks, and collaborating with Directors and Technical Animators to deliver AAA game animations.

What you will do:
• Build, develop, and nurture a strong, empowered team with a healthy, diverse, and supportive team culture
• Define, prioritize, assign, and regularly follow up on tasks and the team's progress together with the producers and production managers
• Provide support, guidance, and feedback for the internal animation team
• Establish animation standards and provide feedback for animations from external vendors
• Be the main point of contact for other teams and act as a representative of the animation team

Qualifications

What you bring:
• 5+ years' experience as an Animator in game development
• Experience in leading, coaching, mentoring or training other team members
• Strong understanding of keyframe animation, motion capturing and procedural animation
• Proven experience on at least one shipped title
• Being able to work with complex game animation systems and extensive animation state machines
• Excellent knowledge of Maya, Motion Builder, 3DSMAX, and/or other commercial 3D authoring packages
• Understand the technical workflows and tools in animation production for games with the ability to modify and improve them
• Great communication skills and a positive attitude
• You are Fluent in English, both verbally and written
* Experience with node-graphs and node-based engines is a plus
* Ability to create custom tools and scripts with Python is a plus
* Rigging experience is a plus

What to send our way:
• Your CV, highlighting your education, experience, and skills
• A cover letter including your earliest starting date, expected salary and why you would like to join us

Portfolio:

It is required that you submit a portfolio of your work with your application. You may do so by providing a link to an online portfolio (preferred) or attaching documents to your resume.
All portfolios must contain a detailed shot breakdown of the work. It must be very clear what you, the applicant, are responsible for in your reel, portfolio, screenshots etc.

The portfolio should contain the following:
• Examples of character animation (full body motion, emotions etc.)
• Examples of animation style variety
• Examples of environment animation or visual effects (optional)
• Examples of animation rigs and their functionality in a 3D package (optional)

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rnynok-3-14-132-214-42 in your application.