Art Director

Electronic Arts; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

3 weeks vacation

Sick leave 10 days per year

Top-up to EI/QPIP

Extended health/dental/vision

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Retirement plan

Job summary

Electronic Arts’ Maxis studio in Vancouver is seeking an experienced Art Director to lead the visual experience for the Sims product line. You will define the aesthetic vision, guide the art team, and ensure cohesive visuals across domains, platforms, and partner studios.

You will mentor artists, drive creative direction, and collaborate with Art Directors, Leads, and Engineering to refine pipelines and deliver high-quality, immersive art that aligns with product goals.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in game development with at least one shipped AAA title as Art Director.
• Experience managing artists or other game developers.
• Proven people leadership philosophy and talent development.

Responsibilities

• Define, uphold, and communicate the visual direction and quality across the product and art teams.
• Maintain visual guides to ensure cohesion across art disciplines during production.
• Collaborate with other Art Directors to deliver unified visuals across domains.
• Contribute to presentations on content strategy aligned to product goals and player experience.
• Support artists as a People Manager by creating growth, clarity, accountability, and strong performance.
• Foster creativity, transparency, and collaboration across the team.
• Identify training and knowledge sharing opportunities to grow the art team.
• Drive objectives to ensure growth, knowledge sharing, and a culture of transparency.
• Grow art leaders to oversee high level goals and improve pipelines and processes.
• Partner with internal outsourcing leadership to ensure quality and delivery.
• Collaborate with Art Directors, Leads, Technical Art and Engineering to refine pipelines and workflows.

Skills

Art direction

People leadership

Vision & style

Collaboration

Game development

Job description

Role ID

215644

Worker Type

Regular Employee

Studio/Department

Maxis

Work Model

Hybrid

Description & Requirements

Electronic Arts creates next-level entertainment experiences that inspire players and fans around the world. Here, everyone is part of the story. Part of a community that connects across the globe. A place where creativity thrives, new perspectives are invited, and ideas matter. A team where everyone makes play happen.

We are looking for a video game Art Director to help lead the visual experience across our Sims products. You'll guide a clear aesthetic vision and promote it across our internal and partner organizations. You will have experience with what we do and the collaborative know how to make dreams a reality.

Responsibilities

• Define, uphold, and communicate the visual direction and quality bar for the product across the art team and partners.
• Maintain visual guides to ensure cohesion and consistency across art disciplines during production.
• Collaborate with other Art Directors to deliver unified visuals across domains.
• Contribute to presentations on content strategy that align to product goals and the player experience.
• Uphold and communicate art priorities in sync to product goals to art teams.
• Support artists as a People Manager by creating the conditions for growth, clarity, accountability, and strong performance.
• Foster creativity, transparency, and collaboration across the team.
• Identify training and knowledge sharing opportunities that increase artist and lead capability.
• Drive Objectives for our Art teams to ensure growth, knowledge sharing, and foster a culture of transparency.
• Grow art Leaders to oversee high level goals and improve results, pipelines and processes.
• Partner with Internal Outsourcing leadership partners to ensure quality, consistency and delivery.
• Collaborate with Art Directors, Leads, Technical Art and Engineering to refine pipeline, workflows, and drive innovation.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in game development and at least one shipped AAA title as an Art Director.
• Experience managing artists or other game developers.
• Demonstrated people leadership philosophy with experience developing talent.
• Experience establishing and pitching an art vision and guidelines
• Experience translating Product goals into a clear, executable direction.
• An understanding of all aspects of contemporary 3D game development: concept art, character modeling, prop modeling, environment modeling, lighting, animation, visual effects and user interface design.
• Experienced in working with team partners to create content plans.
• Sense for visual storytelling, composition, form and palette.

Pay Transparency - North America

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits. Pay offered will be determined based on a number of relevant business and candidate factors (e.g. education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs).

Pay Ranges

Pay is just one part of the overall compensation at EA.

For Canada, 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 other incentive programs.

About Electronic Arts

We’re proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well-being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.