Principal Technical Artist, Shaders & Materials

Job Description

Principal Technical Artist, Shaders & Materials (Star Wars FPS)

Founded in 2010 by the original creators of the Call of Duty Franchise, Respawn was created with the philosophy that when talented people have creative freedom, they'll make extraordinary games that achieve the unexpected. From our roots as an indie studio to joining the expansive roster of studios at Electronic Arts, this remains our guiding principle.

We truly love what we do and want to share our passion with players worldwide. Our shipped titles include critically acclaimed multi-platform games Apex Legends, Titanfall, Titanfall 2, Star Wars™ Jedi: Fallen Order and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Join us for the opportunity to create groundbreaking games with some of the best developer talent in the industry.

You can learn more about our studio and values at respawn.com/studio.

We are looking for an experienced and knowledgeable Principal Technical Artist to join our Star Wars FPS team. Reporting to the Technical Art Director, the Principal Technical Artist will drive the functionality and quality of our materials and help develop other crucial visual systems. You have in-depth knowledge and experience creating efficient yet feature-rich material authoring of all types in Unreal. You will have a broad reach and touch many departments, different types of content, and will play an important role in the quality of our product. We are picturing someone with demonstrable technical capabilities who can embrace our game development philosophy and share their hard-earned expertise to create an incredible experience for our players.

What you'll do...
• Own materials for environments, characters, and weapons for the project.
• Maintain performance, bugs, usability, and documentation.
• Train and mentor other artists and technical artists.
• Collaborate with other departments to design and implement systems that drive dynamic visual feedback.
• Establish best practices, quality bar, pipelines, and documentation for the department.
• Troubleshoot and prioritize artist issues with tools and art creation workflow.
• Work with engineers, artists, and designers to address game performance and memory usage issues.
• Advocate for the department's goal and needs. Remove roadblocks, raise red flags, etc.
• Always raise the quality bar, develop new solutions, and improve processes.

Ideally, you will have...
• 9+ years of games industry experience as a technical artist. Prior experience in a high-level role on a AAA game team and at least one AAA shipped title is highly desirable.
• A high level of experience in Unreal 4 and/or 5.
• In-depth expertise on relevant 3D and 2D software packages (such as Houdini, Maya, Substance, etc.)
• Portfolio that shows relevant tech art experience in games (tools, pipelines, etc.)
• Strong scripting experience in Python, VEX, HLSL or others.
• Strong understanding of pipelines and how to design and optimize them.
• Ability to own a challenging issue and find practical solutions.
• Strong understanding of game engines and art integration as well as corresponding technical restraints.
• Experience addressing game performance and optimization, ideally in Unreal.
• Ability to both receive and deliver constructive criticism.
• Ability to inspire positivity within their team and trust with other departments.
• Empathy for addressing the problems of others, respect for others' time.
• Passion for making and playing games.

If this opportunity sounds like a great fit for you, please submit your resume and portfolio and we will get back to you once we have reviewed.

In addition to opportunities for creative impact and professional growth which come with being member of our team, working at Respawn has many other perks and benefits! Learn more at respawn.com/perks.

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-re57x5-3-138-122-4-42 in your application.