Character Art Lead — AAA Quality & Pipeline Architect

Absurd Ventures, LLC; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Absurd Ventures, LLC is seeking a Character Art Lead to guide the character art team, define visual standards, and partner with the Art Director and production teams to deliver high-quality character assets. The role requires leadership experience and hands-on expertise with Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine.

This full-time, on-site position in Santa Monica, CA offers a competitive benefits package, potential bonus/equity, and collaboration across internal and external teams in

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional character art experience in the video game industry, including experience guiding or leading other artists.
• Proven experience setting artistic direction, establishing quality standards, and making strategic decisions for a character art team.
• Experience creating character pipelines from the ground up.
• Proven experience in pre-production as well as shipping titles.
• Familiarity establishing artistic and technical workflows to tackle all the complexities of a AAA character art pipeline.
• Proven track record of delivering high-quality character assets for AAA game titles.
• Strong understanding of character modeling, sculpting, texturing, anatomy, form, proportion, and silhouette.
• Strong understanding of modern PBR character art workflows and the technical requirements of creating production-ready character assets.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and provide clear artistic direction and feedback to the character art team, fostering a high-performing and collaborative environment.
• Partner with the Art Director to establish and maintain the visual language, quality bar, and artistic standards for characters.
• Make strategic decisions around character art workflows, pipelines, tools, and processes to improve quality, efficiency, and scalability.
• Establish priorities and help determine the appropriate allocation of character art resources across internal teams, outsourcing, and co-development partners.
• Work closely with Production and Directors to assess scope, prioritize work, identify risks, and make informed tradeoffs to keep character art production on track.
• Evaluate character art at key stages of development and provide actionable feedback to ensure assets meet the project's artistic and technical standards.
• Collaborate with Animation, Technical Art, and Engineering to establish character asset requirements and ensure characters are successfully integrated into the game.
• Define and maintain character art documentation, workflows, and best practices to support consistency, onboarding, and team development.
• Identify opportunities to improve the character art pipeline and proactively address production challenges before they impact the project.
• Stay current with evolving character art techniques, technology, and industry practices, and assess their potential value to the project.

Skills

Character art leadership

Mentoring

Art direction

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Maya

ZBrush

Substance Painter

Unreal Engine

Job description

Absurd Ventures, LLC is seeking a Character Art Lead to guide the character art team, define visual standards, and partner with the Art Director and production teams to deliver high-quality character assets. The role requires leadership experience and hands-on expertise with Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine.

This full-time, on-site position in Santa Monica, CA offers a competitive benefits package, potential bonus/equity, and collaboration across internal and external teams in