Principal Technical Artist (Gamedev)

TL;DR

Principal Technical Artist (Gamedev): Supporting artists with art asset prototypes so they can realize their work in-game with an accent on standardizing and improving development processes for the production of in-game assets, materials, shaders, and scalable development pipelines. Focus on prototyping, defining, and developing content based on project needs, optimizing assets and content creation workflows through improved tooling, and solving issues across art, engineering, and design teams.

Location: Los Angeles, USA

Salary: $206,700.00 - $289,000.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

Company

Riot Games creates games and experiences that make it better to be a player.

What you will do

• Partner closely with artists, engineering, and design teams to prototype, define, and develop content based on project needs.
• Research, implement and/or improve the state of art, graphics techniques and tools for use in upcoming R&D projects.
• Help develop content guidelines and workflows to ensure best practices.
• Optimize assets and content creation workflows through improved tooling.
• Solve issues and unify vision with cross-functional peers.
• Consistently communicate with the team by giving and receiving feedback, directing next steps, and providing clear goals and outcomes to your team.

Requirements

• 7+ years of professional experience as a technical artist in games or related industries.
• Experience making tools and automation for one or more packages like Maya, Houdini, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, ZBrush, Knald, Marmoset, Photoshop, etc.
• A foundation in at least one ‘traditional’ category such as level design, environment art, animation or coding.
• Extensive experience working with game engine scripting and materials, and real-time lighting and workflows.
• Highly proficient communication skills and capacity to act as an ambassador between art and engineering.
• Critical thinking skills, particularly as it pertains to translating artistic requirements to sustainable workflow design.
• Professional experience in Unreal and or Unity.
• Professional experience in mobile and or AAA development.

Nice to have

• Expertise in content creation and tool development in DCC tools, especially Maya, Photoshop, and Substance Designer/Painter.
• Experience with look dev, color theory, camera lenses, and lighting direction.
• Proficiency in Python programming.

Culture & Benefits

• Focuses on work/life balance.
• Open paid time off policy and flexible work schedules.
• Medical, dental, and life insurance.
• Parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children.
• 401k with company match.