Lead Animator

Location: Cambridge / Hybrid Workplace: hybrid Frontier is an independent video game developer and publisher, crafting immersive gaming experiences with fun gameplay and unparalleled artistic quality. Renowned for its iconic creative management simulation games, Frontier captivates players worldwide with immersive and authentic game worlds. The modern studio is located in the vibrant technology hub of Cambridge (UK). The talented team at Frontier are dedicated to nurturing our existing portfolio and delivering our exciting future roadmap.    This role is offered on a full in-studio basis or a hybrid basis (minimum 3 days per week in the studio). We can provide a comprehensive relocation support package as part of any offer, should you need to relocate.  WHAT’S THE ROLE? Are you passionate about crafting compelling character and creature animation that elevates gameplay? At Frontier, animation is at the heart of our storytelling. We’re looking for an experienced Lead Animator to helm one of our Animation teams on an exciting new project. WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING Own animation progress, delivery, and quality on the assigned project. Lead and organise a large animation team, delegating meaningful ownership, balancing workload, and maintaining appropriate oversight. Set a clear animation vision, quality bar and delivery plan, with defined priorities, responsibilities and dependencies. Work closely with Production on scope, estimates, schedules, capacity, milestones and delivery risks. Coordinate with Project Direction and discipline leadership to align Animation with wider project goals and dependencies. Identify and communicate risks, assumptions and mitigations to Project Direction and studio senior management. Manage team performance and delivery expectations through timely, direct, and constructive feedback. Guide character and creature animation practice, engine implementation and creative standards across internal and external contributors. Partner with Technical Animation, Animation Code and Rigging to improve tools, pipelines and workflows. Manage animation outsource relationships, briefs, feedback, quality expectations and delivery. Support recruitment, onboarding, and capability planning. Facilitate documentation and reinforcement of workflows, technical decisions, and best practice. WHAT YOU'LL BRING Significant animation experience in the games industry, including leading large teams on complex projects. Strong character and/or creature animation craft, visual judgement, implementation knowledge and understanding of animation pipelines. Proven experience planning team delivery, tracking progress, balancing capacity and recovering work that is off track. Effective people leadership, including delegation, objective setting, coaching, development and performance management. Strong partnership with Production and experience coordinating with Project Direction, discipline leaders and external partners. Sound judgement and decision-making, including the ability to maintain progress through uncertainty and align stakeholders where needed. Expert knowledge of anatomy, movement and performance, with the ability to give clear, actionable direction. Strong knowledge of animation engine tools and systems such as blend trees, state machines and retargeting systems. Experience collaborating with Animation/Gameplay Code, Technical Animation and Rigging on pipeline, process and tool improvements. Excellent communication and influencing skills, including constructive challenge, difficult feedback and clear escalation. BONUS IF YOU HAVE Experience on AAA or large multidisciplinary productions and with engines such as Unreal or Unity. Experience shaping animation strategy, team structures, hiring plans and long-term capability. Knowledge of cinematics, camera theory, motion capture, and motion capture clean-up. Experience creating Python or MEL tools and maintaining internal documentation. Experience leading distributed teams or mixed internal and external development groups. WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU You will work with talented and passionate people to support, develop or publish our sophisticated and enduring games, in a creative, collaborative and inclusive environment. We love what we do, and we work hard to provide outstanding experiences for our players.  Wellbeing is a big focus at Frontier, and we are continually evolving how we can support our people. We encourage a healthy work/life balance and provide a range of wellbeing activities, initiatives and sessions to support both mental and physical health.   We offer a competitive salary and benefits package, which includes a success-based annual bonus, share option schemes, life assurance, private family healthcare, flexitime working hours, enhanced maternity/paternity leave, in-house subsidised catering, support with relocation, a Cycle to Work scheme, free bike servicing, and social activities and events.  We strive to create an environment where everyone can fully demonstrate their capability and potential. If you therefore need any reasonable adjustments to support you during the recruitment process, please speak to your Talent Acquisition representative.   For queries, please email: recruitment@frontier.co.uk