Lead Technical Artist
2 months ago
We are a team of intrepid explorers, creating worlds that we’ve always wanted to experience. We are curiosity seekers, working together to solve the challenges that come with stepping into the unknown. And we know that we’ll get there faster if we stay together and embrace different perspectives and new ways of thinking. We invite those who share our vision for groundbreaking player experiences to explore our career openings and join us in this journey of creating new worlds together.
We are looking for an experienced Lead Technical Artist to join our team and play a crucial role in bridging the gap between art and technology. In this leadership role, you will be responsible for overseeing the technical aspects of art production, optimizing workflows, and ensuring the artistic vision is realized through efficient and effective technical solutions. Your expertise will be essential in guiding the technical art team, collaborating closely with both artists and engineers to develop innovative solutions that enhance the visual fidelity and performance of our games. This position is ideal for someone who possesses a strong technical background in game development, a deep understanding of art pipelines, and a passion for leading and mentoring a team.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead and mentor a team of technical artists (both internal and co-dev), setting goals and ensuring high-quality technical solutions align with project timelines and artistic vision.
- Develop and optimize art pipelines and workflows, identifying bottlenecks and implementing improvements.
- Collaborate with artists and engineers to develop and integrate tools and technologies that enhance the visual quality and efficiency of asset creation.
- Drive the research and implementation of new techniques and technologies to push the visual boundaries of our games.
- Establish best practices and standards for the technical art team, ensuring consistency and quality across projects.
- Troubleshoot complex technical issues and provide support to the art team.
- Actively participate in the creative process, providing technical guidance to ensure feasibility without compromising artistic goals.
- Effective at communicating with different disciplines and levels across the organization
- Work closely with Environments, Characters, VFX, Lighting, Rendering, and other content teams to build new tools and pipelines
- Track issues, prioritize needs, and report bugs as needed
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Digital Arts, or a related field.
- 10+ years of game development experience, at least two shipped AAA titles and 3+ years in a leadership role
- Strong leadership skills, with a track record of successfully mentoring and developing talent.
- Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, capable of working closely with diverse teams.
- Proficiency in industry-standard software like Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, and game engines such as Unreal Engine or Unity.
- Solid understanding of art and animation pipelines in game development.
- Prior experience with PBR shading, modeling and texturing on a AAA console title as well as Unreal/Maya shading graphs or HLSL
- Excellent problem-solving abilities and a proactive approach to overcoming challenges.
- Experience with setting content budgets, asset optimization, platform challenges and best practices/techniques in this area.
- Proficient scripting/programming skills in Python and C#. (C++ is a bonus, but not required).
- A portfolio demonstrating a history of successful projects and technical innovation.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Familiarity with Houdini, Unreal PCG or other procedural content creation tools.
- Experienced with environment authoring tools such as terrain generation, speed tree as well as Substance Designer
- Familiarity with Unreal Engine tools and pipelines including blueprints
Compensation Range: 113,000 - 188,000 CAD
We are an equal opportunity employer that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other protected status as required as by law.