Lead Character Artist (AAA Games)

Location: Hybrid, onsite, or fully remote. Employment contracts are available for candidates living in the Netherlands, Germany, or the UK. Freelancer contracts are available in approved countries; remote freelance contractors cannot currently be hired from Germany, Spain, Italy, France, or the USA.

Company

hirify.global is a Dutch game co-development studio delivering technically demanding AAA game projects for major industry partners.

What you will do

• Lead the artistic vision and delivery of character and creature assets across AAA co-development projects.
• Translate concept and key art into high-quality sculpts, game-ready meshes, UVs, and PBR textures.
• Implement assets in Unreal Engine, including materials, shaders, LODs, and configuration.
• Set the visual quality benchmark for the character team through hands-on asset creation and reviews.
• Collaborate with client-side art direction, concept art, technical art, rigging, animation, production, and external partners.
• Establish workflows and documentation, estimate tasks, track progress, and support recruitment through portfolio reviews and art tests.

Requirements

• 7+ years of character art experience in game development, including a Lead or Senior role on shipped AAA titles.
• Outstanding portfolio demonstrating realistic human anatomy, creature work, form, proportion, and surface detail.
• Expertise in sculpting, modelling, and texturing tools such as ZBrush, Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, and Substance 3D Painter.
• Strong understanding of real-time character pipelines, including retopology, UVs, baking, PBR texturing, and performance optimisation.
• Solid experience implementing character assets in Unreal Engine and collaborating with rigging and animation teams.
• Strong communication, feedback, artistic judgment, and problem-solving skills, with familiarity with Jira, Confluence, or similar tools.

Nice to have

• Experience with stylized or cartoony art styles.
• Ability to concept and ideate through rough sculpting and 2D techniques.
• Knowledge of clothing, hair, and scan-based workflows, including Marvelous Designer, hair cards or grooms, and Wrap.

Culture & Benefits

• Autonomous role in a professional and informally organised company.
• Competitive salary.
• Personal development, ownership, and room to grow.
• Hybrid, onsite, or fully remote working options.
• Inclusive environment that values diverse perspectives and open collaboration.