Associate Art Director - UFC

Electronic Arts; Vancouver; Hybrid; CAD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading gaming company in Vancouver is looking for an Associate Art Director to elevate their next generation of sports experiences. In this role, you will collaborate with concept teams, guide the visual quality of the game, and mentor artists. The ideal candidate has expertise in 3D domains and experience directing art in digital media. This position includes a strong focus on creative vision and improving workflows. A competitive compensation package with benefits is offered.

Benefits

3 weeks vacation

10 sick days per year

Paid parental leave

Health, dental, and vision coverage

Qualifications

• Strong visual direction skills across multiple disciplines.
• Experience guiding long-term visual direction on projects.
• Ability to collaborate with technical partners on pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Lead visual feature planning and creative vision.
• Mentor and provide guidance to the art team.
• Direct visual prototyping initiatives.

Skills

3D domain expertise

Collaboration skills

Organizational skills

Mentoring ability

Inclusive leadership

Education

Experience as Associate Art Director, Art Lead, or Senior Artist

Job description

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.

EA SPORTS is one of the most iconic brands in entertainment – connecting hundreds of millions around the world to the sports they love through a portfolio of industry-leading video games.

The EA SPORTS UFC franchise offers the electrifying spectacle and entertainment of MMA for over 20 million players across the globe. It delivers fluid and responsive mixed martial arts through inventive gameplay technology. Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, the EA SPORTS UFC team is on a mission to become the world's greatest fighting game. If you’re passionate about building immersive digital entertainment, this is the role of a lifetime. This team works 3 days/week onsite in our Burnaby studio.

The Role

We’re seeking an Associate Art Director with strong multi-disciplinary visual direction skills to help elevate our next generation of sports experiences. You’ll collaborate with external concept teams, translate ideas into compelling in‑game features, and work daily with Development, Art, and Technical partners to deliver on the creative vision. Supported by the Senior Art Director, you’ll influence improvements, guide feature quality, and mentor artists. In this role, you will also contribute to the franchise’s long‑term visual evolution, ensuring alignment with the broader vision while shaping standards across environments, characters, animation, lighting, and VFX.

Responsibilities include:

• Direct involvement with visual feature planning and creative vision for an unannounced title.
• Represent the development team as an advocate for visual feature goals and quality standards when working with partner artists, art tech groups, and other partner studios.
• Create comprehensive briefs for internal and external art teams.
• Lead visual prototyping initiatives and help define benchmark assets, visual targets, and hero moments.
• Contribute to the long‑term visual direction and evolution of the franchise, helping inform roadmaps and style development.
• Partner with technical art and engineering teams to improve pipelines, tools, workflows, and performance budgets.
• Collaborate with international or multi‑site teams to maintain consistency across distributed development.
• Daily art direction of visual features, including paintovers, visual target‑setting, and style reinforcement.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to your art team and maintain a healthy, positive team culture.
• Contribute to the Style and Tone documentation for your feature areas and maintain alignment with the broader art vision.
• Oversee AAA art creation workflows and propose improvements when needed.
• Support career growth by providing constructive feedback, coaching, and helping identify skill‑building opportunities for artists you work with.

Your Qualifications

• Expertise in at least one 3D domain (environments, characters, lighting, visual effects, concept art) and proficiency or developing proficiency in the others.
• Experience contributing to or guiding long‑term visual direction on a project or feature area.
• Ability to collaborate with technical art and engineering partners on pipelines, tools, and performance constraints.
• Strong organizational skills and enthusiasm for mentoring and supporting artists.
• An inclusive leadership mindset and the ability to maintain team alignment across multiple disciplines and locations.
• Experience as an Associate Art Director, Art Lead, or Senior Artist in digital media, familiar with setting and communicating direction across multiple art disciplines.
• Experience with formal review processes, stakeholder alignment, and distributed development.
• Ability to direct internal and external artists through visual targets, paintovers, briefs, and mood boards.
• Comfortable working with project management partners to manage delivery timelines in a fast‑paced environment.

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

In British Columbia, 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 equity.

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.