Technical Animation Director

Job Description

Technical Animator

Welcome to Maxis, home to tinkerers, craftspeople, & storytellers. Our drive is to inspire everyone to make a better world through creative play. As the developer of the Sims, we create games and experiences for millions of people around the world and are always looking for new ways to inspire our players. Maxis is a place where you can do what you love and help others grow while doing it; a place where your unique voice can be heard and seen. We put creativity and inclusivity at the core of our work and don't settle for seeing the world only as it is, but strive to build a world as it could be. Read on to see how you can join our team and dream big.

Job Summary

Location: Remote North America - open to most North America locations

Reporting To: Senior Technical Art Director

As a Technical Animator with Maxis, you will be collaborating with multiple disciplines. This includes but is not exclusive to, Animation Directors, Animation Leads, Technical Artists, and Engineers across the Division. The model applicant is passionate about finding efficiencies, exploring new technologies, implementing new tools, and identifying solutions for current and future game development for both existing and new IPs.

Responsibilities:
• Collaborate Closely with the Animation Director, Art Director, Engineers, Character Leads and Animation Leads to deliver animation pipelines and runtime implementations with a forward-looking goal of delivering industry leading animation content.
• Assist and guide in the creation of rigs, animation best practices, and requirement analysis for tools and runtime features needed to obtain the highest aesthetic quality value.
• Aid in developing and maintaining a technical pipeline for the Animation and Tech teams.
• Create prototypes and pursue research in varying engines for best fits on a variety of products while planning for future technologies in projects pertaining to Animation Tech.
• Keep up with the latest trends and technical tools for animation content development.
• Understanding of performance and optimization requirements and experience diagnosing and profiling content costs.
• Train, inspire and develop technical animators and tech artists in their growth while providing constructive feedback.
• Support Mo-cap during shoots, asset collection and retargeting.
• Firefight production issues, investigating hot issues and resolving roadblocks.

Qualifications:
• Minimum of 7+ years of tech art/animation development experience in Maya and video games.
• Must have served as a Tech Anim Senior, Tech Anim Lead or Tech Anim Director on a published or soon to be published video game project.
• Experience driving technical roadmap to achieve the required aesthetic vision.
• Ability to Communicate effectively across multiple disciplines, give clear direction and share your vision on tools and development of tech.
• Ability to mentor and lead junior Tech Artists/Animators to achieve roadmap objectives.
• Experience in Unreal Game Engine with focus on technical animation.
• Proficiency in tech art/animation development in Maya for video games
• In depth experience with creating and maintaining high end character rigs and animation tools for animators.
• Experience building custom deformers and blend shape solutions
• Proficiency in Python, particularly for scripting in Maya
• Strong knowledge of the latest trends, technologies and tools for creating cutting edge animation visuals.
• Experience with designing animation content that integrates well with dynamic systems like character and world physics
• Knowledge of traditional, mocap and procedural animation workflows
• Experience with animation retargeting solutions (offline and in-engine)
• Experience with version control software (Perforce preferred).
• Familiarity with Shotgun, Jira or other bug tracking and project management software
• Must have excellent collaborative skills, coordinating and working with multiple departments to achieve set goals
• Ability to create solid documentation and training material

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITSThe base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these states. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the base salary range for your specific location.EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Salary offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The base salary ranges listed below are for the defined geographic market pay zones in these states. If you reside outside of these locations, a recruiter will advise on the base salary range for your specific location.

EA has listed the base salary ranges it in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in the locations listed, as of the time of this posting. Salary offered will be determined based on numerous relevant business and candidate factors including, for example, education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business or organizational needs.

BASE SALARY RANGES
• California (depending on location e.g. Los Angeles vs. Sacramento):
º $129,050 - $204,600
• New York (depending on location e.g. Manhattan vs. Buffalo):
º $127,850 - $204,600
• Jersey City, NJ :
º $127,850 - $204,600
• Colorado (depending on location e.g. Denver vs. Colorado Springs):
º $127,850 - $189,050
• Washington (depending on location e.g. Seattle vs. Spokane):
º $127,850 - $189,050

Base salary is just one part of the overall compensation at EA. We also offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby (following 1 year of service), medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gpbwzx-18-118-1-232-42 in your application.