Technical Artist (Environment) - The Sims

Welcome to Maxis, home to tinkerers, craftspeople, & storytellers. Our drive is to inspire everyone to make a better world through creative play. As the developer of The Sims , we create games and experiences for millions of people around the world and are always looking for new ways to inspire our players. Maxis is a place where you can do what you love and help others grow while doing it; a place where your unique voice can be heard and seen. We put creativity and inclusivity at the core of our work and don't settle for seeing the world only as it is, but strive to build a world as it could be.

Teams are building the next generation game and creative platform, Project Rene and reimagining The Sims that players know and love with even more new ways to play. We're excited you're interested to learn more about how you can join our team and dream big.

You will be reporting to the Senior Technical Art Director.

Preferred Location: Redwood City, Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, Austin

As an Environment Technical Artist at Maxis, you will collaborate with Art Directors, World Building & Object Leads, Technical Artists and Engineers across the studio and EA, to push the boundaries of storytelling thru world construction. If you are passionate about designing world building tools, bringing the latest trends in technology to bear against your craft, and collaborating with others to develop best in class experiences for new and existing IPs … come join our team.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate Closely with the Technical Artists, Engineers, World & Object Leads to deliver industry leading content pipelines and runtime implementations.
• Work with technical art leads to develop procedural content pipelines for Unreal Engine, Houdini, and Substance, empowering world building and object artists to craft best in class content.
• Work with TDs and TADs to develop content performance plans, profile performance, monitor asset budgets, and provide performance guidance, based on established metrics and methods.
• Develop and maintain pipelines supporting large libraries of game art content in live service ecosystems.
• Use commercial and proprietary software to create high-quality 3D art prototypes as proof of concept for project functional and aesthetic goals.
• Support artists troubleshooting level construction and world production roadblocks.
• Collaborate with Technical Art partners across EA to develop and share pipelines and best practices.
• Understand the requirements and constraints of game design, engine, and platform.

Qualifications:

• 3+ years professional experience working as a Technical Artist in real-time engines such as Unity and Unreal Game Engine.
• Experience with Level/Scene management and optimization.
• Proficiency with Maya and modern DCC applications.
• Proficiency in Python scripting for Maya and DCC applications.
• Experience writing tools to aid environment, object, or animation artist workflows.
• Ability to collaborate across multiple disciplines to achieve team technical objectives.
• Ability to create solid documentation and training material.
• Experience in Perforce or other version control software.
• Experience with ShotGrid (Shotgun), Jira or other bug tracking and project management software.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with Houdini workflows, VEX, HDAs, and Houdini Engine for Unreal.
• Experience with Unreal Blueprint and asset scripting.
• Experience with Unreal Lighting, Post, and Niagara Visual Effects systems.
• Experience with Unreal Materials & PBR fundamentals.
• Skills in Substance Designer & Painter workflows.
• Experience developing for iOS/Android.
• Experience developing for console hardware (XB1/XBX/PS4/PS5).
• Background in photography, painting, sculpting, concept art, or animation.

Visit us at: https://www.ea.com/ea-studios/maxis

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these locations. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the range and benefits for your specific location.

EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Pay offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.

BASE SALARY RANGES

• British Columbia (depending on location e.g. Vancouver vs. Victoria):
º $96,400 - $133,900 CAN Annually
• California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. Sacramento):
º $122,300 - $170,600 USD Annually
• Washington (depending on location e.g. Seattle vs. Spokane):
º $104,000 - $174,700 USD Annually

Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. In the US, we offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity. For British Columbia, we offer a package of benefits including vacation (3 weeks per year to start), 10 days per year of sick time, paid top-up to EI/QPIP benefits up to 100% of base salary when you welcome a new child (12 weeks for maternity, and 4 weeks for parental/adoption leave), extended health/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.