Graduate Animator Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Purpose

Bring your entertainment recruiting network to Hollywood—and help the next generation of creative professionals build their way into the industry. The Los Angeles Film School is seeking a relationship-driven entertainment recruiter or talent professional who can connect promising students and graduates with studios, production companies, agencies, post-production partners, and other employers across the evolving entertainment marketplace.

 Essential Duties & Responsibilities (those that must be performed with or without an ADA Accommodation):

Entertainment Recruiting and Employer Development

•  Build, maintain, and expand relationships with entertainment industry recruiters, hiring managers, production executives, department heads, producers, showrunners, creative executives, studio representatives, agencies, management companies, production vendors, and workforce partners.

•  Develop relationships with studios, networks, streaming platforms, production companies, post-production facilities, animation and visual-effects companies, game studios, digital media companies, creative agencies, creator-economy organizations, and other entertainment employers.

•  Conduct consistent, consultative outreach to understand employers’ current and anticipated talent needs.

•  Identify entry-level and early-career opportunities, including assistant positions, production roles, internships, apprenticeships, project-based assignments, freelance work, contract opportunities, and other appropriate career pathways.

•  Translate employer needs into clear candidate profiles, including required skills, experience, portfolio expectations, availability, workplace readiness, and professional attributes.

•  Build employer-specific talent pipelines aligned with LAFS programs, graduate capabilities, and current market demand.

•  Re-engage previous employers and industry partners to create recurring hiring relationships rather than one-time transactions.

•  Identify opportunities for preferred recruiting relationships, employer showcases, portfolio reviews, hiring events, talent-access programs, and direct recruiting pipelines.

•  Maintain relationships with professional associations, guilds, workforce-development organizations, veteran-serving organizations, community partners, and organizations that expand access to entertainment careers.

 Talent Matching and Candidate Advocacy

•  Partner with Career Advisors and program teams to identify qualified students and graduates for relevant employer opportunities.

•  Conduct recruiter-style candidate intake conversations to understand each individual’s skills, experience, interests, portfolio, availability, work preferences, and career goals.

•  Evaluate candidate readiness against employer requirements and provide clear, respectful, and actionable feedback.

•  Develop curated candidate slates and submit qualified candidates with appropriate context and documented authorization.

•  Help students and graduates articulate their experience, transferable skills, creative strengths, technical capabilities, and professional value.

•  Prepare candidates for employer conversations by providing insight into the organization, opportunity, hiring process, professional expectations, and interview format.

•  Coordinate introductions, resume and portfolio submissions, interviews, employer feedback, and follow-up communications.

•  Maintain an equitable, job-related, and consistently documented referral process.

•  Serve as a supportive candidate advocate while maintaining honesty and credibility with employers regarding candidate qualifications and readiness.

•  Ensure students and graduates understand that Career Development provides employment assistance and access to opportunities but cannot promise or guarantee employment.

 Career Readiness and Recruiter-Based Coaching

•  Provide practical career coaching informed by current entertainment recruiting and hiring practices.

•  Support students and graduates with resumes, portfolios, reels, LinkedIn profiles, professional biographies, interview preparation, networking strategies, follow-up communication, and job-search planning.

•  Coach candidates on entertainment workplace expectations, including communication, reliability, responsiveness, professional etiquette, confidentiality, collaboration, and reputation management.

•  Help candidates understand project-based, freelance, contract, episodic, and production-based employment models.

•  Provide realistic guidance regarding entry points, career progression, transferable experience, compensation conversations, and the competitive nature of entertainment hiring.

•  Partner with Career Advisors and academic leaders to identify recurring readiness gaps and develop targeted workshops, resources, or interventions.

 Industry Programming and Community Engagement

•  Recruit entertainment professionals to participate in career panels, workshops, portfolio reviews, employer information sessions, guest presentations, recruiting events, and networking programs.

•  Create industry programs that provide students and graduates with authentic access to recruiters, hiring managers, alumni, and working professionals.

•  Support employer-facing and student-facing events from initial outreach through execution and follow-up.

•  Represent Career Development at Open Houses, graduation ceremonies, screenings, showcases, industry conferences, networking events, employer meetings, and campus programs.

•  Develop a positive, welcoming experience for visiting employers and industry partners.

•  Maintain ongoing relationships with speakers, panelists, and participating employers after each event.

•  Partner with academic departments to evaluate and coordinate appropriate internship and industry-engagement opportunities.

 Market Intelligence and Internal Partnership

•  Monitor entertainment hiring trends, production activity, emerging job categories, required technical skills, recruiting practices, and workforce changes.

•  Share relevant hiring intelligence with Career Development, Education, program leadership, alumni relations, and other internal stakeholders.

•  Gather structured employer feedback regarding candidate readiness, portfolios, technical competencies, communication skills, and professional expectations.

•  Help translate employer feedback into recommendations that strengthen career preparation and curriculum-to-career alignment.

•  Collaborate across departments while maintaining appropriate boundaries between Career Development, Admissions, Education, Marketing, and other institutional functions.

•  Contribute to continuous-improvement initiatives that strengthen the student and graduate career experience.

 Employment Documentation, Data Integrity, and Compliance

•  Maintain accurate and timely records of employer outreach, hiring needs, job leads, candidate referrals, employer feedback, interviews, offers, employment outcomes, and industry engagement.

•  Update employer, candidate, opportunity, and placement information in Salesforce and other approved institutional systems.

•  Maintain documentation that is clear, consistent, auditable, and sufficient to support institutional, ACCSC, BPPE, and other applicable reporting requirements.

•  Follow approved institutional definitions and procedures when documenting whether employment is related to a graduate’s program of study or considered employment in the field.

•  Obtain and maintain appropriate employment-verification documentation, including relevant employer, position, duties, dates, employment status, and other required information.

•  Appropriately document freelance, self-employed, project-based, concurrent, contract, and gig-economy employment in accordance with institutional and regulatory requirements.

•  Support ACCSC Graduation and Employment reporting, BPPE Annual Report and School Performance Fact Sheet reporting, internal audits, accreditation reviews, site visits, and third-party employment-verification activities.

•  Present employment opportunities, career outcomes, employer relationships, and placement information accurately and without misleading, exaggerated, or unsubstantiated claims.

•  Protect confidential student, graduate, employer, and institutional information.

•  Obtain and document appropriate student or graduate authorization before sharing resumes, portfolios, contact information, or other personally identifiable information with external employers.

•  Use only institutionally approved systems and communication channels when maintaining student and graduate records.

•  Escalate uncertain employment classifications, reporting questions, data discrepancies, or compliance concerns to Career Development leadership rather than making unsupported determinations.

Non-Essential Duties & Responsibilities (those that must be performed with or without an ADA Accommodation):

• Other duties as assigned by Manager.

Other Responsibilities:

• Other duties as assigned by Manager.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• None

Competencies | Knowledge | Skills | Abilities:

• Demonstrated experience building trusted relationships with hiring managers, recruiters, executives, candidates, clients, or industry partner.
• Working knowledge of entertainment industry hiring practices and career pathways.
• Understanding of film, television, streaming, digital media, production, post-production, or related entertainment sectors.
• Experience sourcing, assessing, presenting, coaching, or preparing candidates for professional opportunities.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a natural ability to connect with people from varied professional and personal backgrounds.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, negotiation, and consultative communication skills.
• High emotional intelligence, discretion, credibility, and professional judgment.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a high volume of relationships, follow-up activities, projects, and competing priorities.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to accurate documentation and data integrity.
• Ability to communicate candidly and compassionately when a candidate is not yet ready for a particular opportunity.
•  Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across a complex organization.
• Proficiency with CRM, applicant-tracking, recruiting, or relationship-management systems.
• Proficiency with Salesforce, Microsoft Office, presentation tools, and Mac or PC platforms, or the ability to learn these systems quickly.
• Ability to attend occasional evening and weekend events and travel locally within the Los Angeles entertainment community.
• Authentic relationship building
• Employer engagement and business development
• Candidate advocacy
• Professional networking
• Inclusive and equitable talent practices
• Strategic outreach and disciplined follow-through
• Confidentiality and professional judgment
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Student-centered service
• Consultative recruiting
• Talent assessment and candidate matching
• Entertainment industry credibility
• Emotional intelligence and active listening
• Career coaching and candid feedback
• Data accuracy and documentation
• Event facilitation and public representation
• Market awareness and curiosity
• Growth in active, meaningful entertainment employer relationships.
• Expansion of qualified job, internship, apprenticeship, freelance, contract, and early-career opportunities.
• Development of recurring employer partnerships and hiring pipelines.
• Quality and relevance of candidate referrals.
• Responsiveness and satisfaction of employers, students, graduates, and internal partners.
• Timely follow-up with employers and candidates throughout the recruiting process.
• Accurate and complete documentation of employer activity, referrals, employment outcomes, and verification.
• Successful industry panels, recruiting programs, employer events, and networking opportunities.
• Useful employer feedback that strengthens career preparation and student readiness.
• Increased visibility and credibility of LAFS students and graduates in the entertainment marketplace.
• Demonstrated contribution to verified graduate employment outcomes.
• Consistent compliance with institutional policies, FERPA, ACCSC, BPPE, and applicable reporting requirements.

Education | Experience:

• At least five (5) years of professional experience in entertainment recruiting or talent acquisition; creative or production staffing; studio, network, streaming, or production-company recruiting; agency or management-company talent operations; executive search or staffing within entertainment or media; or employer relations, business development, partnerships, or career development.
• Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of professional experience and education.
• Experience recruiting or staffing for film, television, streaming, animation, visual effects, post-production, games, music, digital content, or creative technology.
• Experience recruiting production assistants, coordinators, assistants, editors, artists, technicians, production personnel, or other early-career entertainment professionals.
• Existing relationships with entertainment recruiters, studios, production companies, creative agencies, post-production organizations, professional associations, guilds, or workforce partners.
• Experience working with students, recent graduates, alumni, emerging creatives, career changers, veterans, or individuals entering entertainment through nontraditional pathways.
• Experience facilitating interviews, career workshops, recruiting events, portfolio reviews, networking programs, or industry panels.
• Knowledge of freelance, contract, project-based, and production-cycle hiring.
• Familiarity with ACCSC, BPPE, FERPA, graduate employment reporting, or career-school compliance requirements.
• Experience working in a college, university, career school, workforce-development organization, nonprofit, or mission-driven environment.
• Public speaking, teaching, coaching, advising, or professional-development experience.

 Certificates | Licenses | Registrations:

• Industry trade organizations membe...