Lead Technical Artist

We are looking for a skilled and well-rounded Lead Technical Artist (Environment) with a passion for game-making, knack for problem-solving, and interest in process and workflow efficiency, to join our team as the critical bridge between technology and art. This role will represent a small team of tech artists and collaborate with programmers, designers and artists to help build and support the world building and content pipelines to ensure successful asset/level deliveries from source art to final runtime.  

Responsibilities:  

• Hands-on leadership and task scoping, prioritization, and delegation 
• Provide guidance and mentorship of tech artists (various levels) on the team 
• Conduct reviews and provide constructive feedback to help team members grow and develop professionally 
• Collaborate with Engineering, Design, and Art teams to provide pragmatic and optimal solutions needed to create high fidelity game levels 
• Act as the discipline stakeholder and liaison and as needed an individual contributor to prototype/implement/adopt new features that meet technical requirements and aesthetic vision 
• Support level creation in engine, and direct team to create tools and automation to improve production efficiency or ease.   
• Troubleshoot content authoring issues encountered by artists and provide pipeline safeguards to minimize future errors 
• Research, evaluate and incorporate new engine release features into production workflow as they become available  
• Ensure the team creates clear, maintainable code that follows coding standards within the structure of studio code library 
• Create/Maintain tools and workflow documentation 
• Maintain proper communication with production and provide timely updates on task status and any unplanned emergent issues that may impact scheduling 
• Help identify game performance issues and bottlenecks and assist with art content optimization  

Requirements & Skills:  

• (Required) 6+ years of professional experience in game development as an environment tech artist or pipeline TD 
• (Required) Unreal Engine Expertise both as power-user and developer (Blueprint & C++) in the areas of world building and level creation 
• (Required) Strong Python experience in the areas of tools and UI (i.e., PyQt)  
• (Required) Runtime profile and optimization experience and understanding of best practices for resource efficiency (PIX, utrace, etc) 
• (Required) Detailed Knowledge of the asset creation workflows in various DCC (Maya, Blender, Substance, Houdini, ZBrush, etc) 
• (Preferred) Knowledge of procedural content generation (PCG) workflows 
• (Preferred) Have shipped at least one title using Unreal 
• (Preferred) Prior team leadership or management experience 
• (Preferred) Experience with photogrammetry and scanned assets  
• (Bonus) Experience with writing shaders  
• (Bonus) Maya API / Plugin Experience  

Qualities:  

• Proven track record to balance multiple tasks in a fast-paced development environment 
• Be patient and empathetic with team members and is constantly mindful of their development and growth 
• Self-motivated and capable to find solutions on one's own  
• Capable of switching tasks quickly to address emergent production issues in a professional manner  
• Tactful verbal and written communication skills 
• Collaborative, team oriented, and open to peer feedback  
• Ability to learn, incorporate new features and techniques quickly into workflow  
• High desire/focus to help making artists' lives better and processes more efficient/scalable, mindful of areas of workflow improvement  
• Great attention to details, and ability to deliver consistent results

TNM considers a number of factors when determining each role's base pay range, including industry benchmarks, location, experience, and other job specific skills. In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for other incentive compensation including equity and profit share. The estimated base pay range for this role is U.S. only and not applicable for locations outside of the U.S.

The estimated base pay range for this role is: $158,000 - $213,000

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