Lead 2D Animator

Stepico Games; United States; Remote; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

18 paid vacation days + 5 paid sick le

Flexible working hours

Remote working

Full employment

Job summary

Stepico Games seeks a Lead 2D Animator to guide and support the animation team across several projects. This hands-on leadership role combines direct animation work with creative supervision and ownership of animation quality and delivery.

You’ll oversee the team, mentor members, ensure technical accuracy, collaborate with producers, PMs, and clients, and help plan and estimate projects while staying hands-on with production tasks.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in 2D animation for games.
• Proven leadership or supervisor experience.
• Strong knowledge of animation principles (timing, squash & stretch, anticipation).
• Experience on slot games and/or stylized casual projects.
• Good understanding of VFX (Spine or Unity-based).
• Hands-on experience with Unity integration.
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• English: Upper-Intermediate+ (spoken and written).

Responsibilities

• Lead up to 3 animation projects simultaneously.
• Oversee animation quality at all stages — from concept to polish.
• Provide regular feedback to team members.
• Ensure compliance with technical requirements (vertex count, masks, export settings, file structure).
• Approve all final assets before client delivery.
• Participate in project estimation and planning.
• Remain hands-on and create animations as part of the production team.
• Collaborate closely with producers, PMs, art leads, and clients.

Skills

Leadership

Animation principles

English (Upper-Intermediate+)

Communication

Mentoring

Tools

Spine

Unity

Jira

Confluence

Job description

About the Role

We’re looking for a Lead 2D Animator to guide and support our animation team across several projects. This is a hands-on leadership role, combining direct animation work with creative supervision and ownership of animation quality and delivery.

You’ll be responsible for:

• Final visual quality
• Feedback and mentoring
• Technical accuracy
• Project evaluations
• Efficient delivery together with the team

Key Responsibilities

• Lead up to 3 animation projects simultaneously
• Oversee animation quality at all stages — from concept to polish
• Provide regular feedback to team members
• Ensure compliance with technical requirements (vertex count, masks, export settings, file structure, etc.)
• Approve all final assets before client delivery
• Participate in project estimation and planning
• Remain hands-on and create animations as part of the production team
• Collaborate closely with producers, PMs, art leads, and clients

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in 2D animation for games
• Proven leadership or supervisor experience
• Excellent skills in Spine
• Strong grasp of animation principles (timing, squash & stretch, anticipation, etc.)
• Experience working on slot games and/or stylized casual projects
• Good understanding of VFX (Spine or Unity-based)
• Hands-on experience with Unity integration
• Familiarity with production tools: Jira, Confluence, etc.
• Ability to structure animation files, maintain clean pipelines, and meet deadlines
• Strong communication skills
• English: Upper-Intermediate+ (spoken and written) — required for internal communication and occasional calls with clients

What You Get at Stepico

• Creative freedom and ownership over animation quality
• The ability to influence animation culture and pipelines
• Diverse and visually engaging projects
• Open communication and collaborative teams
• 18 paid vacation days + 5 paid sick leaves
• Regular salary reviews based on performance
• Flexible working hours and remote working
• Compensation for external conferences/ workshops/ events
• Full employment
• Fun corporate events