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Technical Art Director, Unannounced Project

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Job Description:

Blizzard Entertainment is seeking a talented and passionate Technical Art Director to join our team to work on a major unannounced project. As a Technical Art Director, you will act as a champion for the team’s efforts on look development, pipeline setup, performance optimization, and rigging. Additionally, you will build a tech art department which fosters a strong culture of empowerment and self-accountability where creativity and self-direction flourish.

We are a team of passionate developers that highly value open-minded collaboration, direct feedback, and work in a fast-paced, highly iterative environment. As the technical art director on the team, you will have a strong understanding of game development best practices and production methodologies, and you’ll collaborate with our teams to ensure clear goals are outlined and realized throughout all phases of development. When particularly hard problems arise, you will draw upon your deep tech art experience and the team’s collective creativity to produce a Blizzard-worthy game with stunning art.

This candidate will be partnering extensively with our art and engineering teams, helping to guide efforts through look development, pipeline setup, content development, and external partnerships. The ideal candidate will have a extensive experience developing AAA games in a Technical Art Director or Lead Technical Artist role, with a deep understanding of tech art pipelines and look development, and will be adept at facilitating cross-team development and collaboration. Our team is ripe with opportunities to take on, and this candidate must possess a desire to embrace new challenges and nurture a burgeoning and dynamic team culture.

Responsibilities

• Partners with art and technical director to realize the project’s creative vision.

• Owns art content pipelines and graphics performance throughout the game.

• Drive budgets and performance across all platforms working with the technical director.

• Accountable for driving continuous asset build stability.

• Build efficient internal pipelines and continuously identify art workflow problems during production, and work with TAs, engineers, and artists to solve them.

• Evaluates, drives adoption, and mentors team on new technologies and processes.

• Defines the technical roadmaps and long-term vision for the tech art team as well as strategically plans against the needs of the various disciplines that are being assisted by tech art.

• Accountable and responsible for integrating and reviewing technology (internal and external) in art workflows with an eye to developing the most efficient and cost-effective solutions.

• Is considered a Blizzard-wide resource.

• Responsible for building a relationship with the various teams within Blizzard and collaborate to share and leverage technology.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of professional game development experience, with a minimum of 3 years in a lead or director position.

• Comprehensive knowledge of several CG fundamentals such as modeling, texturing/shading/surfacing, rigging, animation, lighting, and rendering.

• Functional knowledge of all CG fundamentals.

• Strong understanding of Python, C#, C++ or similar languages.

• Familiar with majority of modern art software packages and expert understanding of at least one (Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Substance, ZBrush, etc.)

• Need to have a creative eye and aesthetic judgement to help drive visual quality.

• Strong understanding of good asset management and sharing practices.

• Ability to think creatively to resolve technical challenges and limitations associated with lighting, performance, tools and pipelines.

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to provide a bridge between artists and software engineers.

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, graphic art or a related field or equivalent experience.

• Has shipped a AAA product in a tech art leadership role.

Pluses:

• Experience developing features for game engines such as Unreal, Unity, or proprietary engines.

• Strong history of creative collaboration with teams during pre-production and R&D phases.

• Solid understanding of 3D math and related concepts.

Blizzard Entertainment is a global company committed to growing our employees. We offer generous benefits and perks with an eye on providing true work/life balance. We've worked hard to champion an intensely collaborative and creative environment, a diverse and inclusive employee culture, and training and opportunity for professional growth. Our people are everything, and our core values are real.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Come help us bring the world together through epic entertainment!