Head of Animation

Company Overview

Nekki is a game development studio with over 20 years of experience, focusing on product quality and player experience within the action game genres. The studio is the creator of Cascadeur, software for creating realistic action animation in films and games. The flagship project is SPINE, an Unreal Engine 5 third-person beat’em’up centered around cinematic gun-fu shootouts, featuring a deep storyline, a unique setting, cutscenes, intriguing enemies, memorable bosses, character progression, and battles with a wide array of firearms.

Responsibilities

• Manage animation teams by conducting regular performance reviews, providing constructive feedback, and supporting professional development.
• Work closely with team leads, providing guidance and nurturing their professionalism and animation lead skills.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams across different project departments, looking for ways to optimize production of animations.
• Monitor industry in search of new tech and approaches that could help studio with animation production.
• Work closely as animation expert with game designers to help teams develop needed features, including 3C (Character, Camera, Controls), combat systems and weapon animations etc.
• Works with producers and art direction to define the production plan, break down tasks for the team, assign priorities, and monitor progress.
• Review project animations based on gameplay requirements, style and quality requirements, and feedback.
• Troubleshoot animation-related project issues, improve animation pipelines and tools, and optimize workflows to enhance teams efficiency.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience animating characters for video games.
• Experience working on AA/AAA titles.
• Proven experience leading and mentoring large animation teams (10+ animators).
• Strong understanding of various animation systems and approaches, from keyframe animation to animation graphs, motion capture etc.
• Strong proficiency in Autodesk Maya and Unreal Engine 5.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.
• Good command of English.
• Fluent communication in Russian is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of Cascadeur is a strong plus.

Working Conditions

• Location: Remote.