This job might no longer be available.

Senior Tools & Pipelines Technical Artist

Crystal Dynamics, a part of the Square Enix family and the studio behind Marvel’s Avengers and the award-winning Tomb Raider game franchise, is constantly on the hunt for top-tier gaming talent worldwide. We pride ourselves on attracting and developing the best talent available to concept, create, and contribute to the most exciting projects in gaming. Our 25-plus years of game development experience, as well as our combined AAA games industry pedigree, has established us as one of best studios to work for today. Join us and help shape the future of the award-winning Tomb Raider franchise, Marvel’s Avengers, and the next Perfect Dark!

Benefits for this full-time position include a competitive salary, 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance options and plenty of days of paid time-off.

Position Summary

Come be a Part of the Future of Tomb Raider!

Crystal Dynamics is seeking a Senior Tools & Pipelines Technical Artist who is passionate about supporting the Art team with intuitive tools and content pipelines while building a solid foundation for future development. An ideal candidate is exceptionally technically capable but also has a strong understanding of effective UI/UX from a content creator’s perspective. This individual should be able to work autonomously and self-manage their time effectively on a day-to-day basis, with all the requisite technical art skills, tools, and relevant work experience.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Architect tools and pipelines to support the needs of the project’s content creation team

• Contribute to, maintain, and set standards for a large codebase of core Python API’s / libraries
• Support 3 rd party DCC applications, including writing tools and custom plug-ins, managing content between applications, and investigating, integrating, and managing new applications
• Build artist-oriented user interfaces for tools based on UI / UX principles to create art centric toolsets, focusing on increasing productivity, aiding workflow, and reducing human error
• Mentor less experienced members of the Technical Art team and identify opportunities for them to grow their abilities
• Provide day-to-day technical guidance on tool and pipeline initiatives, including code and design document reviews
• Establish efficient content workflows, processes, and best practices through writing documentation and technical design documents that are understandable to a wide audience

• Assist in educating art staff from a technical, workflow and efficiency standpoint. Help artists troubleshoot pipeline issues and collect feedback for future improvements

Competencies, Skills & Knowledge

• Expert technical knowledge of Python, Maya, and tool / pipeline development for games
• Highly self-motivated and able to confidently design, implement, and optimize tools and pipelines for content creators, working closely with leadership to define roadmaps, provide guidance on priorities, and anticipate future roadblocks
• Aware of current industry trends and able to recommend adoption of relevant technical or artistic approaches or improvements to process

• Clear understanding of all aspects of content creation needs, different workflows and how they impact each other, and multiple DCC packages and how they fit into content pipelines
• Writes clear, maintainable, portable, and efficient code, setting a standard for the team
• Exceptional problem-solving and organizational ability and with minimal guidance
• Positive and respectful attitude, strong work ethic, and able to work both independently and as part of a highly collaborative team – including in a remote environment
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences, including productive feedback and brainstorming, creation / contribution to technical design documents, code documentation, and user documentation. Able to effectively communicate and escalate emergent issues to leadership

Essential Requirements

• Minimum 5 years of experience in the game development (or relevant) industry developing AAA console titles with at least one shipped title
• Experience working as technical artist on multiple game titles throughout their life cycle
• Demonstrated expert skillset in Python, Maya, and UI/UX design.
• Familiarity with C++/C#, Javascript, MEL, ShotGrid, and USD (Universal Scene Description)

• Experience developing tools for Substance Designer/Painter, Houdini, and Photoshop

Optional Portfolio

• A demo reel (approximately two minutes) showcasing best work from professional and personal projects
• A breakdown of work done for each project presented in the demo reel, including a description of the original problem, an overview of the solution as well as technical details, explanation of contributions you were directly responsible for, and thoughts on shortcomings and possible future improvements
• Source code, if you are able to share it! Ideally, provide a link to your github account

• Examples of artistic work – painting, drawing, photography, textures, models, effects, etc.

We are committed to identifying and implementing positive and persistent measures to ensure equal opportunity in the recruitment, hiring, development, training, promotion and compensation of a diverse team employee group. This includes persons of different race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender identity or gender expression, pregnancy, breastfeeding or medical conditions related to breastfeeding, genetic characteristic, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, medical condition, political affiliation, age, veteran status, uniform service member status, marital status, physical or mental disability, or citizenship, as well as any other classifications protected by applicable federal,
state or local laws.