Senior Technical Animator

Who are We?

Jackbox is a small game studio (~80 people) best known for our Jackbox Party Pack franchise: a set of five social party games released every fall. Since 2014, our games-like Quiplash, Drawful, and Trivia Murder Party- have been featured on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, by Polygon, and in living rooms and finished basements across the world.

In 2020, we had over 200 million users. And we have hard evidence that one of those users was Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron.

You can learn everything you ever wanted to know about how our games work (spoiler: your phone is the controller!) and who we are and what we make at Jackbox Games.

What’s the Job?

We are actively seeking a highly skilled and passionate Senior Technical Animator to join our team. In this pivotal role, you will assume comprehensive ownership of the entire rig creation and implementation pipeline, ensuring high-quality and efficient character animation. Beyond the technical aspects, a key responsibility will be to animate expressive and engaging characters from a beloved game, bringing them to life with nuance and personality.

In this hands-on position, you will play a crucial role in shaping our animation department by recommending and implementing best-in-class pipeline and performance standards, continuously seeking to optimize workflows and enhance overall efficiency. Your expertise will also be vital in reviewing, approving, and seamlessly integrating externally developed assets into our projects, maintaining artistic consistency and technical integrity. Finally, you will be responsible for the polishing of final shipping assets, ensuring they meet the quality benchmarks and contribute to a visually stunning and immersive player experience.

What You'll Be Responsible For?

• Collaborating on content goals
• Establishing benchmark assets
• Animate expressive Characters from a beloved IP
• Ownership of Rig & animation Creation
• Recommending pipeline and performance standards
• Approving and integrating assets developed externally
• Polishing final shipping assets

Required Qualifications:

• An eye for detail; Appreciates the art of good skin weighting & polishing animations
• Modern Tools/Techniques: Comfortable in a variety of tools such as Maya, procedural animation etc. and have Insight for when to use which tool for the right effect
• Rig/Skin: Strong knowledge of rigging and character animation tools including skeletons, skinning/deformers, constraints and FK/IK
• Basics: Passion for traditional animation principles and how they can be used to enhance gameplay and style
• Engine: Well versed in Unreal and how to breakdown game animation assets
• End result: Must be able to pull all the above into a compelling end result that enhances the game for players in an immersive experience.

We value kind, motivated, and creative people. Jackbox Games is a group effort and you must work collaboratively. Everyone here is committed to excellence and desires to work in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere.

Jackbox Games is committed to providing opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status, or disability.

Okay, but what are the perks?

• Pay range: $91,659 - $119,177. Please note: individual compensation packages are based on factors unique to each candidate and position, including (but not limited to) skill set, experience, and qualifications.
• 401(k) with matching and various medical plans. We pay 100% of the cost of premiums for dental, vision, disability, and life insurance for our employees. We also cover a really nice chunk of the cost of premiums for spouse/partner/dependent medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Flexible work schedule and environment. Currently, our employees are encouraged to work where they feel the safest and most productive. Our office in Lincoln Park in Chicago is open (and fully stocked with snacks) for folks who prefer to work in the office. We also offer remote work in the following states: California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
• Flexible PTO. Take time off when you need to recharge, take a trip, or just catch up on life.
• Annual stipends for therapy, growth, wellness, and home office equipment to encourage our employees’ lifelong learning pursuits and support mental and physical health.
• Creative work environment. We are lucky to work in a place that is full of talented and innovative folks. Most of the day, the place is pretty quiet (we’re a focused bunch), but this is punctuated with hilarious outbursts and general merriment.
• Free food either virtually or in the office. We stock our kitchen with snacks as well as offer doordash credits quite frequently.

Interested?

Great, we look forward to reading your application. Please include:

• Your resume.
• A cover letter. You don't need to be a professional writer for this job (we have those) but communication is important so we weigh cover letters heavily. We would love to hear a bit about why you are interested in working at Jackbox Games.
• Links to your professional work. *(personal website/portfolio, Art station linked to your work, Vimeo or equivalent. )

Notice something that doesn't quite make sense-great. We want artists that think critically and understand the nuances of job postings in this day and age.

On the fence? If you're interested in the job but worried you aren't qualified, we encourage you to err on the side of applying. We'd hate to miss out on great candidates just because they're worried they don't check every box on the job description.

We know it is a time commitment to prepare an application and we respect that effort by thoughtfully reviewing every complete application and responding one way or the other. But that kind of thoughtful review means that it sometimes takes us a while to get back to applicants, so please be patient with us and no phone calls.

Thanks for your interest in Jackbox Games!