Character Art Lead for AAA Co-Dev — Remote/Hybrid

Abstraction; United States; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Hybrid/onsite or remote

Personal development

EU/UK contract

Job summary

Abstraction is seeking a visionary Character Art Lead to steer the artistic direction of AAA co-development projects from concept to delivery. You will create key assets, guide the art team, and collaborate with leadership and clients to ensure high-fidelity visuals that align with the project’s creative vision.

You will partner with creative and technical leads, manage workflows, and ensure timely delivery within scope.

Qualifications

• 7+ years as a Character Artist in game development, lead or senior on shipped AAA titles.
• Outstanding portfolio showing realistic anatomy and creature work with strong form, proportion and surface detail.
• Proven ability to take a concept from 2D to game-ready 3D asset while preserving original design.
• Expert in sculpting, modelling, and texturing tools (ZBrush, Maya/Blender/3ds Max, Substance Painter).
• Strong understanding of real-time character pipelines, retopology, UVs, baking, PBR texturing, and optimization.
• Experience implementing character assets in Unreal Engine.
• Versatile across styles; grounded, realistic approach preferred.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with Jira/Confluence familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Translate concept art into production-ready character assets (high-poly sculpts, game-ready meshes, UVs, textures).
• Create key assets that set quality benchmarks for the character team.
• Collaborate with client-side Art Director and concept artists to interpret style and feasibility.
• Work under ambiguity with proactive problem-solving and sound artistic judgment.
• Implement assets in Unreal Engine with materials, shaders, LODs, and configurations.
• Lead and mentor the character art team with regular reviews and feedback.
• Coordinate with tech art, rigging, and animation to meet technical specs.
• Establish character art workflows, best practices, and documentation.
• Provide task estimates and progress updates to Production.
• Support character team recruitment with portfolio reviews and tests.

Skills

Character art leadership

High-poly sculpting

PBR texturing

Unreal Engine

ZBrush

Maya

Blender

3ds Max

Substance 3D Painter

Technical art collaboration

Tools

ZBrush

Maya

Blender

3ds Max

Substance 3D Painter

Unreal Engine

Job description

Abstraction is seeking a visionary Character Art Lead to steer the artistic direction of AAA co-development projects from concept to delivery. You will create key assets, guide the art team, and collaborate with leadership and clients to ensure high-fidelity visuals that align with the project’s creative vision.

You will partner with creative and technical leads, manage workflows, and ensure timely delivery within scope.