Lead Animator

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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 cinema tics, camera theory, motion…