Associate Director of Animation

2K is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two InteractiveSoftware, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). Founded in 2005, 2K Games is a global video game company, publishing titles developed by some of the most influential game development studios in the world. Our studios responsible for developing 2K’s portfolio of world-class games across multiple platforms, include Visual Concepts, Firaxis, Hangar 13, CatDaddy, Cloud Chamber, 31st Union, HB Studios, and 2K SportsLab. Our portfolio of titles is expanding due to our global strategic plan, building and acquiring exciting studios whose content continues to inspire all of us! 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including sports, shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, casual, and family entertainment.

Our team of engineers, marketers, artists, writers, data scientists, producers, thinkers and doers, are the professional publishing stewards of 2K’s portfolio currently includes several AAA, sports and entertainment brands, including global powerhouse NBA®️ 2K, renowned BioShock®️, Borderlands®️, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization®️ and XCOM®️ brands; popular WWE®️ 2K and WWE®️ SuperCard franchises, TopSpin 2K25, as well as the critically and commercially acclaimed PGA TOUR®️ 2KAt 2K, we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive work environment, which means encouraging our teams to Come as You Are and do your best work! We encourage ALL applicants to explore our global positions, even if they don’t meet every requirement for the role. If you're interested in the job and think you have what it takes to work at 2K, we encourage you to apply!

What We Need

Global Services, 2Ks world-class in-house central resource agency, is seeking an Associate Director of Animation to build and lead a dynamic team of animators to support our portfolio of AAA games. You will orchestrate project quality and the well-being of team members as they work across our entire portfolio, for all 2K studios worldwide, providing the highest quality key-framed, mocap, hybrid, gameplay, and cinematic animations, in support of top-tier developers. The Animation team will need to adapt to a broad range of animation styles and pipelines. This role is pivotal in developing the next generation of game content-creation services.

What You Will Do

• Oversee multi-project production schedules, staff development plans and allocations, and department growth opportunities.
• Connect with development partners to understand animation needs and define opportunities to evolve the team's craft.
• Provide constructive feedback to team members, mentor supervisors, leads, seniors, mid-level and junior animators,
• Encourage and facilitate the development of a significant knowledge base in others to guide their career development and progression.
• Maintain an inclusive environment and thriving team culture.
• Champion tools development to optimize processes and workflows
• Develop standards and metrics for budgeting and supervising animation tasks.
• Identify and develop solutions to tactical creative and technical issues with clear objectives.
• Orchestrate animation workshops, masterclasses, and lectures for the team and participate in recruitment fairs, trade shows, and external 2K events.

What Will Make You a Great Fit

• 10+ years of animation team leadership experience, preferably with games, mocap, VFX, keyframe and high-end realistic animation styles.
• Excellent at cultivating positive working relationships with internal partners and development teams.
• Proven experience in video games, film, or television
• Games experience, including gameplay, mocap, cinematics, and sophisticated facial animation pipelines are a big plus.
• Strong familiarity with animation production processes and pipelines.
• Demonstrable solutions-based approach to sophisticated challenges across teams and subject areas.
• Familiar with project management tools, such as JIRA, Shotgun/Shotgrid
• Outstanding communication, interpersonal and leadership skills.
• Values keeping a safe and open environment for all team members to build camaraderie and bolster creativity.

Benefits

2K Dublin offers a very competitive and attractive set of benefits

• Free healthcare and dental, life insurance, pension
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Fitness reimbursement, wellbeing rewards programme
• Taxsaver commuter ticket and cycle to work scheme
• Free on site gym and personal trainer, physio & massages, snacks and catered lunch at the office

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to ensuring that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform their essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us if you need reasonable accommodation.

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.

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