Principal Character Artist (Game Art)

TL;DR

Principal Character Artist (Game Art): Taking client-approved character proxies and driving them to final, game-ready assets at AAA shipping quality with an accent on anatomy, proportions, edge flow, deformation, materials, and presentation. Focus on defining quality benchmarks, establishing workflows for grooms and cloth, and ensuring performance targets for in-game characters.

Location: Fully Remote, supporting a multi-time-zone team.

Company

hirify.global partners with major AAA teams to ship real-time content.

What you will do

• Own and define character quality standards for anatomy, proportions, and materials.
• Complete final character assets, including retopology, UVs, baking, texturing, shader setup, LODs, and Unreal Engine validation.
• Create deformation-ready models and guide skin weighting and corrective solutions.
• Establish workflows for hair (XGen/Grooms) and cloth (Marvelous Designer) for efficient in-engine results.
• Ensure material and PBR calibration, consistent texel density, and adherence to material budgets.
• Manage performance: hit memory/tri/material/texture budgets and define LOD strategy and streaming requirements.
• Conduct reviews, provide mentorship to senior/mid-level artists, and raise first-pass acceptance rates across pods.
• Collaborate with Tech Art on tooling and pipeline improvements (templates, presets, checklists, batch processes).
• Partner with clients, translate feedback into concrete changes, and propose solutions that protect scope and quality.
• Prepare professional presentations for approvals, including turntables, breakdowns, and in-engine captures.

Requirements

• 8+ years in real-time character art with at least one shipped AA/AAA title and notable character ownership.
• Expert in Maya (or Blender/Max), ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter/Designer, and Photoshop; strong retopology, UV, and baking fundamentals.
• Strong Unreal Engine integration skills: materials/master instances, LODs, physics/collisions, and in-editor validation.
• Proven excellence in anatomy, deformation-aware topology, and character look development (skin/eyes/hair/fabric).
• Track record of elevating quality through critique, mentorship, and hands-on problem-solving in production.
• Clear, direct communication in a remote, multi-time-zone team.

Nice to have

• Facial topology and blendshape literacy; collaboration with rigging for face/body correctives.
• Experience with Hair grooming (XGen/Grooms), Marvelous Designer, and scan/photogrammetry cleanup.
• Familiarity with Marmoset Toolbag, SpeedTree (for accessories), and Houdini for utility operations.
• Scripting for workflow (Python/MEL/Blueprint utilities); ShotGrid/Jira familiarity.

Culture & Benefits

• Work closely with major AAA teams on real-time content development.
• Opportunity to define character quality benchmarks and solve challenging art problems.
• Role includes significant mentorship and technical leadership.
• Work in a fully remote, distributed team environment across multiple time zones.
• Focus on craft authority and delivering AAA shipping quality assets.