Animation Team Lead (Tech Animation and Animation)

JOB DESCRIPTION: Lead Animator (Animation and Tech Animation) 

DISCIPLINE: Animation 

REPORTS TO: Animation Director 

The Studio  

Compulsion Games is a first-party game studio and subsidiary of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios, located in Montreal, Canada.   

Founded by industry veterans, we have a human-first culture where we trust and respect each other, with shared love and passion for our craft. Our games have won praise and awards for their art, music, world-building, and engaging narratives. We are devoted to building experiences that feel unique and handcrafted, and our programming team is here to make sure our content creators and designers are as creative as they can be.  

We aim to create characters with compelling, human flaws and narratives that explore heavy themes with care and empathy. Our storytelling typically has a healthy dose of darkness and comedy thrown in for good measure.  

Our Culture  

Compulsion Games is a quality-led studio with a humble team that enjoys experimenting with an artistic approach to making games. We like to hire people who are drawn to our core values of trust, autonomy, harmony and craftsmanship and share our vision of a studio built around them. As a team, we do not want to grow too big to stay true to these values, as they don’t scale well.  

A core part of our hiring process is ensuring new hires are well-aligned in order to build a harmonious team and company. We care deeply about our team and their wellbeing, so you’d be joining a close-knit group who are creative, inclusive and care about developing one another.   

The Need  

We’re looking to add a talented Lead to our human-sized animation team, to support and mentor our team of 8 people (animators, technical animators and animation systems designers). We need somebody that has a strong understanding of both the tech and craft of animation, who is excited about using those skills to help lead and support the team throughout the entire production process. Success in this role is as much about shipping a great team as it is a great game.  

The Role 

As a Lead Animator at Compulsion Games, you will be responsible for leading and mentoring the full animation and technical animation team, to help achieve the needs of the project while celebrating and empowering the craft of bringing interactive characters to life. Beyond supporting the full animation team, you will also collaborate with the tech, design, art, narrative and production team to bring our worlds and characters to life in ways that enhance gameplay and storytelling. 

Responsibilities: 

• You are people-focused individual. As a professional, you deeply care for your colleagues and are always there to support them. 

• Excellent communication skills to collaborate effectively with a diverse group of artists, designers, programmers and producers. 

• Lead and mentor a team of animators and technical animators, providing feedback and guidance to maintain quality, consistency and collaboration. 

• Be the primary point of support for the team to help unblock any technical or production issues encountered. 

• Collaborate with the Animation Director to execute on the animation style and vision of the project. 

• Develop and refine rigging and animation workflows to optimize efficiency and pipeline processes. 

• Work closely with the design and tech teams to ensure animations align with gameplay mechanics and player experience. 

• Work closely with the art, design and tech teams to ensure characters and creatures are developed in a way to meet both production and experiential needs. 

• Ensure animations and characters integrate seamlessly into Unreal Engine, troubleshooting and refining as needed. 

• Help to conduct animation team reviews, maintaining consistency and ensuring animations and technical animation work meet production goals. 

• Be a part of the tech leadership group to help shape the tech direction of the project.  

• Stay up to date with industry trends and advancements in animation technology. 
  

Skills and Experience: 

• Previous experience in a leadership role in an animation or technical animation team 

• Strong animation and technical animation skills 

• Strong communication and leadership skills, with the ability to inspire and mentor a team 

• Proficiency in Maya, Blender, or other industry-standard animation tools 

• Strong understanding of rigging and DCC animation tools and pipelines 

• Strong understanding of character motion, physics, and animation principles 

• Strong coding or scripting knowledge to help develop animation and character pipelines 

• Experience with organizing and defining priorities, within the team and with other disciplines 

• Experience working with motion capture and keyframe animation 

• Familiarity with Unreal Engine and real-time animation workflows 

• Passion for creating unique and expressive characters 

What We Offer 

Whilst we operate a hybrid work environment, our preference is to hire applicants who can spend time in the studio regularly; therefore, we will prioritize applicants local to Montreal and/or within Quebec province. 
 

If you’re eager to contribute to a team that’s redefining storytelling in games, we’d love to hear from you.