Lead Technical Artist

At Wizards of the Coast, we connect people around the world through play and imagination. From our genre defining games like Magic: The Gathering® and Dungeons & Dragons® to our growing multiverse, we continue to innovate and build new ways to foster friendship and connection. That’s where you come in!

Skeleton Key is a new game development studio and division of Wizards of the Coast. We are a group of industry veterans who are guided by the belief that empowering our teams and providing the proper time, tools, and support we can foster a creative culture where everyone can do their best work.

Our new studio will be located in Austin, TX, and we are looking for a passionate and dedicated Lead Technical Artist to join us and lead a team of technical artists who collaborate with both artists and developers to refine our art pipelines and techniques to help deliver our AAA vision.

Reporting to the Technical Director you will play a meaningful role as we concept and kick off pre-production. You'll guide the studio toward excellent art pipelines and practices, technologies, and meaningful improvement to workflows for our team by understanding their needs.

What You'll Do:

• Develop custom workflows using scripts and coded tools solutions.
• Manage a team of technical artists and assist in their skills and career development.
• Maintain the integrity of art pipelines by identifying inefficiencies and recommending and implementing improvements.
• Facilitate technical art communication across teams by providing clear and constructive feedback and mentorship.
• Collaborate with a diverse team and distributed team to promote innovation and refine the visual quality of our games.
• Push your artistic talent to the limit on a team of world-class environment, character and concept artists who strive to innovate and inspire.
• Align artists around technical standards for asset creation.
• Troubleshoot and help resolve challenges through technical solutions.

What You'll Bring:

• 6+ yrs experience in AAA digital game development as a Lead or Senior Technical Artist.
• 2+ yrs experience managing teams and individuals.
• A strong background in driving optimization and performance while understanding limitations of various platforms.
• Abilities in secondary skills such as modeling, skinning, animation, or lighting and the desire to support other content creators.
• Experience building tools and pipelines, with a desire to push technology further for materials, shaders, lighting, environment art, and other fields.
• Recent experience with the Unreal Engine art pipeline.
• Experience working on multiple platforms.
• Scripting experience in Python, Blueprint or other related technology.
• Experience with giving and receiving feedback.
• Passion for making and playing games.
• Enthusiastic, positive, and team-oriented mentality, as you will interact and collaborate with all departments and teams.
• Self-sufficient and self-motivated, can perform duties with little oversight.

Compensation Range, Currency USD:

• Starting Pay Range: $ 134,080
• Pay Range End: $228,960

We are an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer

The above is intended to describe the general content of and the requirements for satisfactory performance in this position. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of the duties, responsibilities, or requirements of the position.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you are selected to move forward in our application process and need to request an accommodation, please let your recruiter or coordinator know.

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation range for this role. The range listed is just one component of Wizards of the Coast’s total compensation package for employees. Employees may also be eligible for annual and long-term incentives. In addition, Wizards of the Coast provides a variety of benefits to employees. Here’s a look at what your benefits package may include: Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance, Paid Vacation Time & Holidays, Generous 401(k) match, Paid Parental Leave, Volunteer Program, Employee Giving & Matching Gifts Programs, Tuition Reimbursement, Product Discounts, and more.

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