Lead VFX Artist & Animator

The Role: The Lead VFX Artist & Animator defines the effects, motion, and moment-to-moment visual feedback that make our new game feel exceptional in the player’s hands, from early development through global launch and live service. This is a deeply hands-on role at the intersection of art, animation, and technology. You’ll take effects from idea through final implementation directly in Unity, combining strong artistic instincts with the technical judgment required to make beautiful effects perform reliably across mobile devices. Great VFX here isn’t decoration: it communicates gameplay, focuses attention, reinforces player actions, and turns important moments into memorable ones. You’ll partner closely with the Art Director, Lead Designer, Lead Engineer, and production team to establish and protect the game’s VFX and motion quality bar. We’re looking for someone who understands the visual language and proven patterns of successful casual games, but can reinterpret them in fresh, brand-authentic ways for a globally recognized IP.The ideal candidate has meaningful experience shipping successful mobile F2P games, preferably in the casual or puzzle space, and understands what separates good-looking effects from truly satisfying game feel. This is a full-time role with location flexibility. We are headquartered in Southern California; proximity is preferred, though not required. Availability during PST working hours and a willingness to travel for key milestones is expected. The role includes full benefits and opportunities for company equity. You Will Own the game’s VFX and motion identity alongside the Art Director, establishing a consistent visual language for gameplay feedback, rewards, progression, celebrations, transitions, and key player moments. Create polished 2D and 3D real-time VFX and animation for core gameplay, match interactions, cascades, boosters, UI, rewards, and live-ops content. Author and implement effects directly in Unity from concept through production-ready integration rather than relying on engineering to complete the work. Use Unity Particle System/Shuriken, Shader Graph, materials, animation systems, sprite-based FX, and other real-time techniques appropriate to the desired result. Bring exceptional game feel to interactions through a strong command of anticipation, impact, timing, rhythm, follow-through, readability, and visual hierarchy. Study and deconstruct best-in-class casual and puzzle games, understanding the conventions players already recognize and identifying opportunities to deliver “proven better new” through the lens of the brand. Prototype rapidly in-engine and evaluate effects in the context of real gameplay rather than as isolated visual assets. Optimize and profile VFX across representative iOS and Android hardware, balancing visual ambition with mobile GPU, fill-rate, overdraw, memory, and performance constraints. Build reusable components, prefabs, templates, and workflows that allow the game’s visual language to scale across features and live service rather than relying on one-off compositions. Partner with artists and engineers on tooling, automation, shaders, pipelines, and other technical-art solutions that improve the team’s capabilities. Incorporate AI-assisted tools into ideation, asset development, iteration, and production where they meaningfully improve creative outcomes, with the judgment to know when traditional methods remain the better solution. Provide direction, feedback, and mentorship to other artists and external partners as the team and content pipeline grow. You Need Significant professional experience as a VFX Artist, Technical Artist, Animator, or similar role in games, with a portfolio demonstrating exceptional real-time VFX and satisfying game feel. Expert hands-on Unity experience creating and implementing production-quality real-time VFX.Proven experience shipping mobile F2P games through major development phases, including launch and live service. Strong proficiency with Particle System/Shuriken, shaders and materials, animation systems, and both 2D and 3D real-time art techniques. Strong animation fundamentals, including timing, spacing, anticipation, impact, follow-through, rhythm, and readability. Demonstrated ability to optimize and profile VFX on actual iOS and Android hardware. Experience designing reusable effects, systems, and workflows that scale across features and ongoing content production. Strong technical problem-solving skills and the ability to collaborate comfortably with engineers on implementation, optimization, tooling, and performance. Excellent visual judgment, communication, and collaboration skills, with the ability to take ownership while working effectively within a multidisciplinary team. Practical experience with AI-assisted creative or development tools and an interest in evolving workflows as new technologies emerge. Strongly Preferred Experience on successful casual or puzzle mobile games; experience contributing to a top-grossing puzzle title is especially valued. VFX Graph, custom shader development, scripting, Unity editor tooling, or other deeper technical-art capabilities. Experience with tools such as Blender, Maya, Houdini, Spine, After Effects, Photoshop, or equivalent packages. Please note that only applications that come with a VFX reel will be considered.