Associate Animator Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

The Associate Art Director at Riot oversees the quality and management of a team with a focus on Mission, Direction, and Cohesion. In this role, you will guide the art direction for an unannounced project within one of Riot's core IPs. Your scope spans game art presentation, UI, motion graphics, and VFX, ensuring a cohesive and engaging player experience. You will be responsible for team health, performance, and growth, while driving alignment across engineering, design, narrative, and technical art. You will report to the Art Director.

As an Associate Art Director on an unpublished R&D product, you will lead the game's development from prototype through production. You will define how players experience illustrations as interactive elements through motion, VFX, and UI. You will manage a multidisciplinary team of artists and establish scalable pipelines for integrating and optimizing illustrations for digital platforms. You'll partner closely with other development disciplines to deliver a polished, performant, and immersive product. As part of the creative team, you will help shape product strategy, remove obstacles, and ensure the art supports both gameplay clarity and long-term player engagement.

• Set and uphold the art direction across game art presentation, UI, motion graphics and VFX
• Define art goals, production strategies, and timelines
• Build, manage, and mentor a multidisciplinary team of artists
• Lead hiring efforts for the art team including defining roles, reviewing candidates, conducting interviews and making hiring decisions.
• Partner with design to ensure strong gameplay clarity and readability
• Collaborate with engineering and tech art to build scalable, performant game art 
• Work with narrative to ensure cohesive and compelling visual storytelling
• Ensure high-quality integration and optimization of game art across required platforms
• Provide clear direction, feedback, and foster a strong team culture
• Establish efficient pipelines for high-volume asset integration and implementation
• Manage external partners for game art, animation and VFX work

• 10+ years of industry experience creating high quality game art
• Experience managing artists and leads across multiple disciplines like UI, motion graphics, VFX, and illustration
• Experience shipping games across various platforms (i.e. mobile, PC, console, etc.), with strong visual direction and execution
• Proven collaboration with engineering, design, narrative, and tech art
• Strong understanding of visual hierarchy, readability, and player-focused design
• Experience working with and adapting existing art assets for real-time applications
• Experience building scalable production workflows

• Experience working on live-service titles
• Background in Visual Design or UI design
• At least 3 years experience working within various game engines like Unreal, Unity, etc.
• Strong foundation in art fundamentals and visual storytelling
• Understanding of how VFX, animation, and UI support gameplay feedback
• Familiarity with Riot Games' various IPs 
• Knowledge of current trends in cross-platform games
• Portfolio demonstrating strength in UI, motion systems, and interactive presentation

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise and a collaborative spirit that prioritizes the delight of players. We will look at your past studies and experience, but for this role, we also look for dedicated people with a personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this is the role for you!

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

At Riot Games, we put players first. That mission drives every decision in our quest to create games and experiences that make it better to be a player. Whether you're working directly on a new player-facing experience or you're supporting the company as a whole, everyone at Riot is part of our mission. And just like in our games, we're better when we work together. Our goal is to create collaborative teams where you are empowered to bring your unique perspective everyday. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, we're looking forward to your application.

It's our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.