Senior Game Animator — Hybrid (CA/US)

Electronic Arts (EA); Montreal (administrative region); Hybrid; CAD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plan

Paid time off

Job summary

Electronic Arts is seeking a Senior Animator on the Research & Engineering team to drive high-quality gameplay animation from concept to in-engine implementation. This hybrid role requires collaboration with Art Direction, Design, and Technical Animation to balance visuals with performance across multiple platforms.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in AAA animation, a strong reel, and proficiency in Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D, and modern engines like Unreal or Unity.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional animation experience in AAA game development.
• Strong demo reel showing high-quality gameplay animation, locomotion, combat, reactions, and character performance.
• Experience with Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D, Marvelous Designer or comparable software.
• Experience working in Unreal, Unity, Frostbite, or another modern engine.
• Experience mentoring animators, leading animation reviews, and providing craft direction.
• Expert understanding of animation fundamentals including posing, timing, spacing, weight, impact, motion clarity.
• Experience implementing animation in real-time engines with state machines, blending, IK, etc.

Responsibilities

• Create high-quality gameplay animation across locomotion, traversal, combat, reactions, interactions, and character performance.
• Establish the animation quality bar, movement principles, and production standards, while mentoring and providing craft direction.
• Partner closely with Art Direction and Design to define posing, timing, weight, impact, readability.
• Support playable demos and vertical slices by taking animation from exploration to in-engine implementation.
• Collaborate with Technical Animation and Engineering on runtime animation systems, state machines, blending, procedural solutions, and scalable workflows.
• Help define the project's animation style and motion language to match visual direction and gameplay goals.
• Lead animation reviews across internal and external production to ensure quality bar is met.

Skills

AAA game development

Animation reel

Maya/Blender/ZBrush

Unreal/Unity/Frostbite

Leadership / mentorship

Animation fundamentals

Real-time engine

Tools

Maya

Blender

ZBrush

Substance 3D

Marvelous Designer

Job description

Electronic Arts is seeking a Senior Animator on the Research & Engineering team to drive high-quality gameplay animation from concept to in-engine implementation. This hybrid role requires collaboration with Art Direction, Design, and Technical Animation to balance visuals with performance across multiple platforms.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in AAA animation, a strong reel, and proficiency in Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D, and modern engines like Unreal or Unity.