Animation Production Manager

About the role

CatFace is looking for an experienced Animation Production Manager to lead the day‑to‑day operations of its Animation Department, overseeing projects from pre‑production through final delivery. Reporting to the Creative Producer, you will manage workflows, resources, and ensure high‑quality animation output.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and mentor the Animation Department, providing direction, feedback and accountability.
• Manage animation pipelines from pre‑production to post‑production handoff, ensuring efficient progress.
• Coordinate with the Production Operations Lead to set milestones, communicate capacity, risks and resource needs.
• Translate priorities into clear assignments, balancing artist strengths, workloads and resources.
• Assess staffing needs across multiple productions and ensure appropriate expertise and support.
• Provide visual storytelling guidance, reviewing performance, staging, composition, camera, pacing and continuity.
• Oversee previsualization, layout, scene preparation and preliminary editorial tasks.
• Maintain production and file‑management practices, including naming conventions, version control and clean handoffs.
• Conduct final camera and QC passes to ensure creative and technical readiness.
• Identify challenges early, develop solutions and collaborate to mitigate risks.
• Facilitate communication between animation and other creative, technical and production teams.
• Develop and improve workflows, pipeline processes, best practices and standards.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, training and coordination of external vendors.
• Manage performance and development of team members through feedback and 1:1s.

Required profile

• 5+ years of professional animation production experience.
• 2+ years supervising animation teams.
• Strong understanding of the full 3D animation pipeline.
• Proven ability to manage workflows, resources and deliverables across concurrent productions.
• Leadership and people‑management skills.
• Director’s eye for visual storytelling.
• Solutions‑oriented mindset with strong creative problem‑solving.
• Excellent organizational and communication abilities.
• Bachelor’s degree in Animation or related field preferred, or equivalent experience.

Required skills

• Autodesk Maya
• Adobe Creative Suite
• DaVinci Resolve (or similar post‑production tools)
• Familiarity with Minecraft animation tools such as Blockbuster (a plus)
• Production tracking and version control tools: Monday, ShotGrid, Perforce, Dropbox

What we offer

• Medical, dental and vision health benefits
• 401(k) contribution
• Flexible time off
• Lunch, snacks and drinks in the office
• Pets in the office once a month
• On‑site fitness center
• Learning stipend
• Relocation assistance for candidates outside Austin