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Lead Technical Artist

We’re ArenaNet—we’ve created a studio that makes online worlds infused with innovation, hand-crafted excellence, and creative passion. We're not the only ones who share this passion; gamers made Guild Wars 2 the fastest selling MMO game in the West with more than 3 million copies sold in its first 9 months, and players and press have consistently called it one of the best MMOs of all time.

Our studio is built on foundations of excellence with a focus on community. We constantly innovate, unlocking the true potential of online role-playing with game-changing titles like Guild Wars 2 and beyond. The status quo is not good enough for our dedicated worldwide community of players, which is why we question the de facto industry conventions and demand more from ourselves as developers.

As the Technical Art Lead, you will manage a team of talented and passionate technical artists. You will direct and contribute to a content pipeline that empowers artists to effortlessly bring their full creative powers to bear on the future of rich, imaginative online worlds.

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow, mentor and inspire the Technical Art team while providing clear direction and feedback
• Direct and contribute to the future of our art tools pipeline, improving existing pipelines and creating solid frameworks for future ones
• Collaborate with multiple teams, disciplines and projects across the studio to advance the quality and efficiency of their work
• Identify areas of risk and solve problems in the development process
• Act as an advocate for content creation best practices and standards
• Champion internal and external Technical Art team initiatives and causes
• Manage and balance the workloads and tasks across the Technical Art team

Qualifications

• 6+ years of production experience, including experience in a lead or director role
• Extensive knowledge of modern content creation pipelines and workflows, including familiarity with a variety of DCC packages
• Deep knowledge in at least one of the following areas:

• Technical animation and rigging
• Lighting and surfacing
• Visual FX and rendering
• Procedural content generation
• Pipeline and automation
• Expertise in Autodesk Maya
• Expertise in Python with some experience with at least one other scripting or programming language (C++, C#, JavaScript, etc.)
• Experience shipping multiple games including at least one AAA title
• Experience with multiple game engines
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills
• Excellent organization and time-management skills
• A customer-centric approach to tool development; solid grasp of UX

Preferred

• Experience developing for live multiplayer games
• Experience developing for modern consoles
• Experience with at least one commercial engine (Unity, Unreal3/4, CryEngine, Lumberyard, etc.)
• Has experience in all stages of game development, pre-production through ship
• Experience with PyMel and the Maya Python API