Lead Technical Artist - Unannounced | Irvine, CA

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At Blizzard, we craft genre-defining games and legendary worlds for all to share. Through unparalleled creativity and storytelling, we create immersive universes and iconic characters that are beloved across platforms, borders, backgrounds, and generations - only made possible by building a work environment that nurtures the artistry of game development and unleashes the aspirations of our people.

We are looking for a Lead Technical Artist to help us define and craft Blizzard’s next great game. As a key member of the development team, you will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of high-quality Tech Art work including art pipelines, proprietary tools, software plug-ins, and in game technology. You understand how to effectively build, integrate, and optimize a variety of technical game content and pipelines that support gameplay and enable the Art team to hit iconic visual standards. You are comfortable operating in a startup environment, navigating through ambiguity with purpose.

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The home studio for this role is Irvine, CA.

What You Bring to the Table

Priorities can often change in a fast-paced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

• Mentor and guide technical artists in areas of expertise and help instill best practices.

• Cultivate other members of the team through direct management of skills, processes, and technical / artistic techniques.

• Engage in broader game production challenges as they relate to design, art and engineering.

• Collaborate with design, art and engineering on efficient workflows and automation.

• Partner with other leads and directors to meet visual and technical standards.

• Own performance optimization for art assets by creating clear art performance standards, asset performance monitoring tools, and by building a maintainable process for reviewing and addressing asset performance optimization.

• Research, define, extend, and maintain production pipelines, processes, and workflows.

• Collaborate with art, engineering, and design to ensure that technical art vision is serving the project’s needs.

• Identify problems and solve them by implementing off the shelf solutions or in the case where a solution does not exist, by creating robust technical implementations.

• Make and help implement recommendations on how to improve both product quality and group productivity.

• Identify potential and recurring workflow problems and collaborate with other developers to find viable solutions.

• Manage and maintain asset integration, files, pipelines and processes.

Minimum Requirements

Experience

• 8+ years of experience in AAA Tech Art.

• Proven experience, having shipped multiple major titles in a relevant role.

• Experience in a Leadership position managing a team of Technical Artists.

Knowledge & Skills

• Comprehensive understanding of all major aspects of content creation in commercial engines.

• Strong understanding of PBR.

• Expertise in Python, C#. and/or C++ – specifically as it applies to programming in DCC applications (such as Maya).

Key Attributes

• A team-oriented approach to your work, understanding the importance of collaboration, and partnering with all departments.

• The ability to Inspire others with an enthusiastic approach to game development and improving core skills.

• Self-motivated ability to lead initiatives.

• Ability to pioneer practical production-oriented art workflows.

Extra Points

• Experience working through early development R&D phases of a project is a plus.

• Experience handling high-poly workflow data.

• Passion for playing a variety of video games.

Your Platform

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

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, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!  Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company.  You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.