Lead Animator (Contract)

Pole To Win Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading game development company in Kuala Lumpur is looking for a Lead Animator to drive the animation quality and direction across high-end game projects. You'll lead a team of animators to create fluid character and gameplay animations while ensuring technical consistency and quality. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of game development experience with strong skills in Maya, MotionBuilder, and real-time engines like Unreal Engine or Unity. This role offers the opportunity to establish scalable animation pipelines and collaborate with global teams.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional animation experience in game development, with at least 2 years in a lead or senior role.
• Proven experience delivering AAA-quality gameplay and cinematic animation.
• Advanced proficiency in Maya or MotionBuilder and understanding of animation principles.

Responsibilities

• Lead the creation of high-quality keyframe and motion capture animations.
• Define and maintain the animation vision and quality across projects.
• Mentor and guide a team of animators and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Skills

Professional animation experience

Collaboration skills

Communication and leadership skills

Tools

Maya

MotionBuilder

Unreal Engine

Unity

Job description

Lead Animator, you’ll drive the animation quality, direction, and workflows across a range of high-end game projects. You’ll lead a team of animators delivering fluid, expressive, and technically sound character, creature, and gameplay animations, whether fully keyframed or motion‑capture based.

You’ll lead an internal project and help establish scalable animation pipelines, documentation, and quality standards that will support future outsourcing and co‑development (co‑dev) partnerships with global clients. Working closely with the global leadership team based in the U.S., you’ll help facilitate cross‑studio collaboration, ensuring creative alignment and consistent production standards across regions.

Resumes are required to be submitted in English

Responsibilities

• Lead the creation of high‑quality keyframe and motion capture animations for characters, creatures, and gameplay systems.
• Define and maintain the animation vision, quality bar, and technical consistency across projects.
• Collaborate with Design, Tech Art, Rigging, and Engineering to integrate animation smoothly into gameplay and narrative systems.
• Review internal and outsourced animation work, providing clear, constructive feedback to maintain AAA quality benchmarks.
• Troubleshoot animation, rigging, and implementation issues, and partner with Tech Art to drive continuous pipeline improvements.
• Mentor and guide a team of animators, supporting their development and onboarding.
• Partner with production to accurately scope animation deliverables, identify dependencies, and mitigate risks.
• Maintain project documentation, style guides, and communication with client‑side animation leads or directors.
• Attend internal and external meetings, occasionally outside standard business hours, as needed to support project and business goals.

Requirement

• 5+ years of professional animation experience in game development, with at least 2 years in a lead or senior role.
• Proven experience delivering AAA‑quality gameplay and cinematic animation.
• Advanced proficiency in Maya or MotionBuilder, with a strong grasp of animation principles, body mechanics, timing.
• Hands‑on experience with Unreal Engine (4/5) and/or Unity, including animation blueprints, state machines, and real‑time implementation.
• Experience with both keyframe and mocap cleanup and retargeting workflows.
• Strong collaboration skills working with Tech Art, Rigging, and Design teams.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills in English, with experience mentoring and directing distributed teams.
• Prior experience with outsourcing or co‑development projects preferred.

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