Lead Tech Artist

PlayStation; United States; Remote; USD 138,000 - 208,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Tech Art Lead for an exciting new project. This role involves crafting exceptional character rigs and optimizing art workflows to create immersive gaming experiences. You will collaborate with a diverse team to bring iconic characters to life while ensuring performance meets visual fidelity across platforms. If you have a passion for innovation and a player-first mindset, this is the perfect opportunity to make a significant impact in the gaming world. Join a dynamic environment where creativity thrives and your contributions will shape the future of gaming!

Benefits

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Wellness program

Employee discounts

Qualifications

• Experience in Rigging and pipeline creation is essential.
• Strong proficiency in Maya, Substance Painter, and Python is required.

Responsibilities

• Lead Tech Art discipline and define team goals while contributing as an IC.
• Create custom tools to enhance visual fidelity and performance.

Skills

Rigging

Workflow & pipeline creation

Maya

Substance Painter

Photoshop

Python

Unreal Engine

Technical documentation

Problem-solving

Tools

Maya

Substance Painter

Photoshop

Unreal Engine

Job description

Why PlayStation?

PlayStation isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Today, we’re recognized as a global leader in entertainment producing The PlayStation family of products and services including PlayStation5, PlayStation4, PlayStationVR, PlayStationPlus, acclaimed PlayStation software titles from PlayStation Studios, and more.

PlayStation also strives to create an inclusive environment that empowers employees and embraces diversity. We welcome and encourage everyone who has a passion and curiosity for innovation, technology, and play to explore our open positions and join our growing global team.

The PlayStation brand falls under Sony Interactive Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation.

Are you on a mission to create games that bond players together into deeply invested communities? Would you like to work on something comedic with lighthearted and whimsical characters? Do you think a lot about how modular rigging systems enable quick iteration, how streamlined DCC pipelines empower artists, or how to achieve feature-quality character animation within real-time constraints?

As a Tech Art Lead on an Unannounced Project, you’ll collaborate closely with the art team to bring iconic characters to life from prototype through production for a completely new world at PlayStation. Your ability to craft exceptional character rigs and efficient art workflows with a high degree of autonomy will delight animators and contribute to a class-leading action game!

As a member of our tight-knit art team, you’ll balance craft expertise with a player-first mindset and willingness to contribute beyond your role to improve the prototype experience. Your understanding of animation and technical constraints will enable you to deliver functional and innovative rigs without an established pipeline during prototyping, and then to help us build a scalable pipeline for production. Most importantly, you will work with a fun, diverse, and passionate cross-discipline team devoted to building a new universe from scratch.

We look for candidates who value joining a mission-focused team with a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences, interests, and viewpoints.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Lead the Tech Art discipline & define the team’s goals while also contributing directly as an IC in early stages of the project.
2. Build and manage the Technical Art team, including mentoring and management of internal Tech Artists and overseeing external Tech Art work.
3. Work closely with the Art Director to find innovative methods for bringing the team’s artistic vision to screen.
4. Deliver art vision into the game & collaborate cross team to define where performance meets visual fidelity.
5. Ensure visual aspects of the game are performant across all platforms (PC, console).
6. Excited to collaborate with project leadership to define and oversee the Technical Art roadmap, working cross team with technical artists, animators & designers to inform these decisions.
7. Create custom tools to enhance the game's visual fidelity and performance.
8. Develop and refine workflows and pipelines that boost production efficiency and foster team collaboration.
9. Introduce new features to the art team by showcasing examples, giving presentations, and producing relevant documentation.
10. Engage in proactive communication with all stakeholders to ensure shared objectives and preemptively manage any challenges.

REQUIRED SKILLS

1. Experience in Rigging/ Workflow & pipeline creation/ supervision.
2. Production experience with standard content creation tools such as Maya, Substance Painter, and Photoshop as well as professional experience using Python.
3. Ability to independently translate art team goals into creative solutions with a thorough understanding of cost, efficiency, and quality tradeoffs.
4. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively in a team environment.
5. Experience in producing clear, concise, and accurate technical documentation, with the ability to simplify complex topics.
6. Experience in managing and resolving stability, performance, and memory issues across different platforms.
7. Experience with Unreal Engine.
8. Experience managing external resources effectively.
9. Experience shipping across multiple platforms (PC, console).

Nice to have Skills

1. Ability to creatively solve problems for a wide variety of asks during R+D, as demonstrated by prior success in incubation environments.
2. Ability to create unique custom shaders and effects that are efficient, scalable and deliver on the team's vision.
3. Ability to create and hook up gameplay VFX assets.
4. Experience creating/managing modular environment systems.

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about how we process your personal information, and your data protection rights.

At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location. Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products. This role also may be eligible for a bonus package. Click here to learn more.

This is a flexible role that can be remote, with varying pay ranges based on geographic location. For example, if you are based out of Seattle, the estimated base pay range for this role is listed below. $138,200 — $207,200 USD

Equal Opportunity Statement:

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or parental status, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond.

PlayStation is a Fair Chance employer and qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered for employment.