Senior Character Animator

About the role

Join a leading AI lab's cutting-edge GenAI team to be at the core of the AI revolution, where your expertise fuels the development of the most advanced AI models.

A leading AI lab is building a performance transfer model: one that takes an actor's original performance and carries it faithfully into a new output, keeping the timing, the emotion and the small physical choices that make it feel real. We're looking for senior character animators who have spent their careers bringing acting to life on feature films, VFX and games, to help define what a well transferred performance looks like and judge where the model gets it right or wrong.

This is a part-time W-2 employment position with Cincinnatus LLC, with the opportunity to be placed at a leading AI Lab as part of their extended workforce.

About Cincinnatus LLC: Cincinnatus LLC is an enterprise staffing company that partners with leading technology companies to source and employ highly skilled professionals for contingent and contract-based opportunities. Cincinnatus serves as the employer of record for these engagements, providing W-2 employment, payroll, benefits, and compliance, while placing employees directly within client teams to work on high-impact initiatives.

Mercor partners with leading AI labs and enterprises to train frontier models using human expertise. You will work on projects that focus on training and enhancing AI systems. You will be paid competitively, collaborate with leading researchers, and help shape the next generation of AI systems in your area of expertise.

Scope of Work

• Set the quality bar: Define clear standards for when a performance has been carried over well, in body mechanics, facial nuance, timing and emotional intent, and point out where current evaluations fall short.
• Critique model outputs: Review generated performances shot by shot, the way you would in dailies, and write precise, actionable notes.
• Build benchmarks: Choose reference performances that range from easy to genuinely hard to capture, so the model is tested on what matters.
• Shape the reviewer pool: Help define the profile, rubric and calibration for the human reviewers who score outputs at scale.
• Collaborate with other experts to keep evaluations consistent and accurate.

What you’ll bring

• 10+ years as a hands-on character animator focused on human and character acting, at Senior, Lead or Principal level.
• Animator credits on several feature films, VFX features or AAA game cinematics at recognized studios (e.g., Sony Pictures Imageworks, ILM, Animal Logic, Laika, Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks, Framestore, MPC, DNEG, Weta FX).
• A sharp eye for micro expressions, lip sync, weight and timing, and the small acting choices that make a performance feel authentic.
• Hands-on use of generative image and video tools (e.g., Sora, Veo, Midjourney, Runway, Kling) to create your own samples for testing and comparison.
• Able to work on-site in Playa Vista (Los Angeles), CA or New York, NY for in-person working sessions once or twice a month.
• Strong written communication and the ability to turn visual detail into clear, precise language for evaluation templates.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strongly preferred: facial animation experience, and recent work in real-time engines (Unreal or Unity), VR/XR, or performance capture pipelines.

Benefits

Not provided in the source listing.

Schedule and availability

Part-time; in-person working sessions in Playa Vista (Los Angeles), CA or New York, NY once or twice a month are required. Confirm the remaining work arrangement with Mercor.

Contract & Payment Terms

• Equal Employment Opportunity: Cincinnatus is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or any other legally protected characteristic.
• We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.
• You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
• This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
• Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
• Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
• Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
• Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.

Where you can work

This role is open to people based in: United States.

Remote does not always mean work from any country. Always check the employer’s location and working-hour requirements.