Animateur.trice sénior.e / Senior Animator

Electronic Arts; Redwood City (CA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Electronic Arts seeks a Senior Animator to lead gameplay animation across locomotion, combat, and character performance within a hybrid Redwood City environment. You will mentor teams, shape animation standards, and collaborate with Art Direction to ensure a cohesive visual experience.

Ideal candidates bring 8+ years in AAA games, a strong reel, and proficiency in Maya/Blender/ZBrush, Substances, and Unreal/Unity engines. This role offers cross-location work with Montreal or Vancouver options.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in AAA game development with 8+ years of professional animation experience and shipped console or PC titles.
• Strong demo reel showing high-quality gameplay animation, locomotion, combat, reactions, and character performance.
• Experience with standard tools such as Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D, Marvelous Designer, or comparable software.
• Experience working in Unreal, Unity, Frostbite, or another modern proprietary engine.
• Experience mentoring animators, leading animation reviews, and providing craft direction is expected; experience managing small internal or external animation teams is a strong plus.
• Expert understanding of animation fundamentals including posing, timing, spacing, weight, impact, and motion clarity.
• Strong experience implementing animation directly in a real-time game engine, including state machines, blending, motion matching, IK, or comparable runtime systems.
• Strong understanding of how animation supports gameplay responsiveness, readability, camera, controls, and player feedback.
• Experience adapting animation across different game genres, including action-focused experiences, character types, camera perspectives, and gameplay needs.

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 providing mentorship, feedback, and craft direction as the discipline grows.
• Partner closely with Art Direction and Design to define posing, timing, weight, impact, responsiveness, and gameplay readability.
• Support playable demos and vertical slices by taking animation from early exploration through polished 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, ensuring character movement and interaction feel cohesive with the overall visual direction, character personality, and gameplay goals.
• Lead animation reviews across internal and external production, ensuring work consistently meets the established creative and technical quality bar.

Skills

AAA game development

Demo reel

Maya/Blender/ZBrush

Substance 3D/Marvelous Designer

Unreal/Unity/Frostbite

Mentoring

Animation fundamentals

Runtime animation systems

Gameplay responsiveness

Tools

Maya

Blender

ZBrush

Substance 3D

Marvelous Designer

Job description

Locations: Redwood City, California, United States of America

• Vancouver
• British Columbia
• Canada

• Redwood City
• California
• United States of America

Role ID

216091

Worker Type

Regular Employee

Studio/Department

Other

Work Model

Hybrid

Description & Requirements

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

At EA, we believe games are powerful because they bring together multiple ways people engage: play, watch, create, and connect. And increasingly, the biggest entertainment platforms aren't just places to consume content — they're places where communities build.

Creator-made content is already a proven part of EA's history — from community creation tools in Battlefield to The Gallery in The Sims 4. We believe new creative technologies and tools will expand how players engage with and contribute to our experiences, supported by thoughtful product design, safety systems, and global reach. Our focus is on enabling more players to participate in creative expression by making creation easier, safer, and more rewarding.

As a Senior Animator on the Research & Engineering team you will have an extensive understanding of content pipelines, from source asset creation to final rendering, you excel at balancing visual quality with performance. You can implement novel solutions to complex art challenges. Furthermore, you keep pace with relevant research, understanding how technology must evolve to craft fantastic game worlds and visually-convincing experiences.

This is a hybrid role, onsite three days a week in Redwood City, California, Montreal or Vancouver, Canada.

The Senior Animator will report to the Senior Art Director.

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 providing mentorship, feedback, and craft direction as the discipline grows.

Partner closely with Art Direction and Design to define posing, timing, weight, impact, responsiveness, and gameplay readability .

Support playable demos and vertical slices by taking animation from early exploration through polished 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 , ensuring character movement and interaction feel cohesive with the overall visual direction, character personality, and gameplay goals.

Lead animation reviews across internal and external production , ensuring work consistently meets the established creative and technical quality bar.

Qualifications:

Demonstrated experience in AAA game development with 8+ years of professional animation experience and shipped console or PC titles.

Strong demo reel showing high-quality gameplay animation, locomotion, combat, reactions, and character performance.

Experience with standard tools such as Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance 3D, Marvelous Designer, or comparable software.

Experience working in Unreal, Unity, Frostbite, or another modern proprietary engine.

Experience mentoring animators, leading animation reviews, and providing craft direction is expected; experience managing small internal or external animation teams is a strong plus.

Expert understanding of animation fundamentals including posing, timing, spacing, weight, impact, and motion clarity.

Strong experience implementing animation directly in a real-time game engine, including state machines, blending, motion matching, IK, or comparable runtime systems.

Strong understanding of how animation supports gameplay responsiveness, readability, camera, controls, and player feedback.

Experience adapting animation across different game genres, including action-focused experiences, character types, camera perspectives, and gameplay needs.

We are a diverse, goal-driven team that offers real influence and autonomy to every member. Our ideal candidate is curious, open-minded, and thrilled by exploring fresh concepts and tailoring them for game development. If you are a passionate, creative, and communicative individual who is deeply invested in innovating across new domains of gaming, we want you on our team.

Pay Transparency - North America

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits. Pay offered will be determined based on a number of relevant business and candidate factors (e.g. education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs).

PAY RANGES

Pay is just one part of the overall compensation at EA.

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 other incentive programs.

For Canada, 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 other incentive programs.

About Electronic Arts

We're proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well-being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.